NFTs are gaining new habitat, Ripple targets mass adoption

Key points 

• Ripple Labs XRPL now supports NFTs
• The standard for its blockchain is called XLS-20
• Ripple’s plan aims to allow artists to integrate their royalties on-chain

Ripple Labs XRPL now supports NFTs. The company hopes to accelerate the mass adoption of tokenization, or the representation of real-world assets on a blockchain.

Ripple Labs' XRP token, the sixth-largest cryptocurrency in the world by market cap, has been researching non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

As of October 31, the blockchain will support NFTs (via a standard Ripple called XLS-20) after voting to approve the adoption of the technology. The move comes after Ripple created a $250 million fund a year ago to explore NFT innovations on its XRPL blockchain.

In an interview with CoinDesk this week, Ripple Labs CTO David Schwartz said the goal is to enable tokenized cryptocurrency by offering lower costs, faster speeds, and enhanced security for cryptocurrencies compared to existing technologies. Mass adoption - this represents NFT ownership of the real thing.  Ethereum is one of the established providers.

“You're going to see projects based on things like carbon credits and real estate ownership and all these different use cases,” he said in an interview. “Anything that you can own all or some of that is unique, that can be represented by an NFT.“

Ripple entered the NFT space at a time when royalties for digital creators were in the spotlight. Well-known marketplaces such as X2Y2, Magic Eden and LooksRare already make royalties optional, which some people despise.

This can limit the ability of creators to benefit from their work. Ripple’s plan aims to alleviate this by allowing artists to integrate their royalties on-chain.