You might have joined the XRP Ledger ecosystem many years ago, or perhaps you’re a recent arrival intrigued by the latest price movements of its token, XRP. Either way, congratulations for pausing here for a moment! Welcome!

Everyone fondly remembers their first blockchain, or at least the first one that they truly fell in love with, which may not have been the very first for everyone, but for some, it was XRP Ledger. Today, we’ve grown accustomed to discussing blockchains, attending monthly events, and engaging with a vibrant community on social media, where opinions and news travel at lightning speed. Everything moves too fast, and the scale is overwhelming. Yet those who’ve been around for a while recall their first arrival in a blockchain community—meeting new people, some of whom became friends or even partners. Some users eagerly awaited the weekly blog posts from community leaders sharing their thoughts on a blockchain’s potential impact on the world.

We’ve all felt that feeling in our stomachs—whether it was signing up for an exchange for the first time, engaging in a heated debate, sending or receiving your first tokens, or publishing your first tool that interacts with your favorite blockchain. These are the “firsts” of something new, moments that now feel old yet will forever stay with you, like a summer love. Those opportunities only come once—or do they?

XRP Ledger is a remarkable blockchain that has been operational for over +10 years. It offers fast, low-cost transactions and has evolved through validator-approved proposals, adding new functionalities along the way. If there’s one thing missing in XRP Ledger, it’s smart contracts or advanced logic to expand its capabilities. A solution known as “Hooks” was developed but never made it to XRP Ledger. After years of development, abandoning all that work would have been wasteful. The logical next step was to build upon it, resulting in Xahau—a blockchain born from XRP Ledger’s core, enriched with advanced logic and numerous new changes. At its core, however, it remains a direct relative of XRP Ledger. Some features of XRP Ledger are absent in Xahau, and vice versa.

When Xahau launched, some embraced it as a new opportunity to achieve what was previously impossible. Others saw it as an attack or a coup against XRP Ledger. A year later, we can see that such fears were baseless. Xahau has continued to grow, as has XRP Ledger. XRP Ledger now stands as the third-largest asset in the blockchain world, with a market cap of $150 billion. Should anyone using XRP Ledger be concerned about Xahau’s existence? The answer is NO. Only those who lack confidence in XRP Ledger might feel threatened by Xahau. Xahau is now just another blockchain, like Stellar or XDC, and XRP Ledger will always remain its family of origin. Xahau serves as a speedboat to experiment and create projects that might never be feasible on XRP Ledger. XRP Ledger, akin to a massive ship like the Titanic, hosts a great deal of capital and users due to its robust capabilities but cannot afford to make agile maneuvers. It’s better to have a support boat that spots icebergs ahead, giving you time to steer clear. Supporting and building on Xahau is, in essence, supporting and building on XRP Ledger.

Returning to the starting point, Xahau is only one year old, and everything is yet to be done. If you want to relive the thrill of your first blockchain love, Xahau is at the perfect stage for that. It carries the advantages of XRP Ledger along with new superpowers like Hooks. It’s fast, straightforward, and if you’ve already worked with XRP Ledger, you’ll find it easy to build applications and tools, now enhanced by the ability to add smart logic. If you’re an old-school enthusiast with an idea to build, Xahau is fertile ground, waiting to be cultivated, where the first ideas to arrive will shine brightly. Even if these ideas already exist on other blockchains, being the first on Xahau gives you a privileged position over other businesses. The same applies to users who share their ideas and feedback about the network. The community is eager to welcome new participants who want to contribute.

Let’s not forget that many users approach blockchains as investors, hoping to profit from buying the token—though that doesn’t always happen. Xahau is surrounded by builders focused on creating improvements for Xahau and its projects, so the token’s value won’t grow through flashy marketing or embellished half-truths, as we often see in the blockchain industry. If Xahau and its token, XAH, grow, it’s because the community is bringing value to the Xahau blockchain. This is just the beginning, and the future looks promising. Do you feel that in your stomach again?