Introduction

When it comes to decentralized finance, XRP has mostly been excluded due to the nature of XRP Ledger (XRPL) on which it is used as a gas token. The biggest reason why is that XRPL hasn't incorporated smart contract capabilities so far. In other words, developers cannot write and deploy smart contracts to XRPL for others to run custom logic. Instead, XRPL defines a set of predefined transaction types.

Although a subset of predefined transaction types like AMMBid can be used to participate in certain DeFi-like activities like swaps, there is a clear limit on how creative DApp developers can be. All transaction types need to be predefined, and for new transaction types to be added, they need to be proposed to and voted on by XRPL validators to be activated on the XRPL.

This was the case until recently that Ripple has built an EVM sidechain and partnered up with Axelar to enable cross-chain communication between XRPL and EVM sidechain, as well as any other chains that are connected to Axelar. This is significant in many ways. It unlocks programmability for the users using XRPL, although XRPL itself still lacks smart contract functionality. XRPL-native assets such as XRP can now be transferred to other chains that have smart contract capabilities. Moreover, it has the potential to unlock the huge amount of capital that was inherently locked within XRPL alone.

Strobe Protocol positions itself to best utilize and create value from this ongoing development. It is built on XRPL, Axelar and EVM sidechain, aiming to provide the best yield experience for the users.