Ripple Executive: XRP Needs to Learn from Solana's Execution Speed and Strategy to Stay Ahead in the L1 Competition

Odaily Planet Daily reports that Luke Judges, Ripple’s Global Head of Partnerships, stated that for XRP Ledger (XRPL) to maintain its edge in the new round of Layer 1 competition, relying solely on technical prowess is not enough. He emphasized the urgent need to learn from Solana in terms of execution speed, developer experience, and market strategy. Judges pointed out that Solana’s appeal comes from “practical engineering and rapid implementation,” rather than protocol design itself. Judges, who previously operated a validator node in the Solana ecosystem managing over $30 million, believes that the success of L1 networks is often driven by “pragmatism and speed,” rather than theoretical technological leadership.

He highlighted that XRPL has made progress in advancing smart contracts and enhancing programmability, but technological iteration must be accompanied by a clear go-to-market strategy to truly translate into a competitive advantage. In response, Ripple CTO David Schwartz offered a differing perspective, stating that XRPL’s core strengths lie in reliability, stability, and institutional-grade performance, which are superior to chains that pursue extremely high throughput at the cost of stability. He believes that XRPL’s consistency and high availability are more suitable for real-world financial applications than “blindly pursuing speed.”

Judges also emphasized the importance of developer tools, documentation, and onboarding processes, and pointed out that validator incentives and decentralization risks are key to the ongoing development of L1s. He noted that the current decline in Solana’s validator numbers serves as a warning for XRPL. Overall, Judges believes that XRPL’s future strategy needs to focus on three points: enhancing the developer experience, strengthening the speed of technology implementation, and learning from competitors’ execution efficiency while maintaining reliability. He stressed that this is not a negation of XRPL, but a necessary adjustment to face future competitive cycles. (cointelegraph)