- Ripple executive Luke Judges has revealed his track record with Solana projects, and suggested XRPL can learn from Solana’s practical approach to engineering and developer tools as it refines its ecosystem strategy.
- Judges said that while Solana is “far from perfect”, XRPL should look to mirror its focus on speed and provide developers with effective building blocks to support network adoption.
A Ripple executive has said the network can learn from Solana’s “pragmatism and speed”, suggesting that XRPL needs greater flexibility to cement its position as the leading digital payments layer 1.
In a recent X post, Luke Judges highlighted that despite his role as Global Partner Success Lead for RippleX, his background includes 1.5 years running a Solana validator that had more than $30 million staked, and building Solana-based startup projects, including a decentralised storage app.
Solana’s far from perfect, validator count is dropping fast right now, but it has pragmatism and speed that XRP (and every other L1) can learn from. No point burying your head in the sand pretending you’re the only chain in town.
Luke Judges, RippleXJudges has worked at RippleX since late 2023, the arm of Ripple that focuses on supporting and collaborating with the XRPL developer community to lift activity on the network. That includes handling relationships with validators and nodes, strategic partnerships and joint ventures, startup incubation, stablecoin adoption and efforts to maximise tokenisation on the XRPL.
He pointed out that the Ethereum Foundation had already tweaked its go-to-market strategy in light of an evolving L1 competitive landscape.
When another X user said that XRP’s purpose differs from SOL/ETH due to its focus on the more in-demand ‘medium of exchange’ use case — Judges said XRP also had strong ‘store of value’ tendencies and needs to do more to stay relevant and usable for developers if it wants to grow.
“I think if the XRPL plans to solve for medium of exchange use cases it needs more flexibility / extensions of existing primitives,” Judges said.
“Exchanges in a post internet world are dynamic with multiple variable factors & data e.g dates, amounts, conditions, requirements.”
Related: XRP ETFs Post 11th Straight Day of Inflows as Price Hovers Above $2
Within days of sharing his Solana-inspired wisdom, Judges reminded his X followers that he’d be speaking on the main stage of the Solana Conference being held in Abu Dhabi between 11-13 December 2025.
Ripple CTO Says Reliability Key Network Strength
Judges’ comments diverge somewhat from previous musings by Ripple’s CTO David Schwartz. Schwartz tweeted in August 2025 that XRPL’s predictability and “battle-tested” infrastructure, built upon for over a decade, was behind its traction and institutional adoption.
Related: Ripple Secures Expanded Singapore License, Enabling Broader Regulated Payment Services
Solana’s proof of stake model is designed for speed and it’s known for its developer appeal — but it’s also known for being unreliable. Schwartz said XRPL’s structure, which includes a public and permissionless core with optional permissioned features for regulated use cases, was a key strength for its payment rails use case.
“This open foundation makes it adaptable, interoperable, and well-positioned to serve as critical infrastructure for the world’s financial system — connecting assets, markets, and participants seamlessly across borders,” he said.
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