Following his recent resignation, Ripple CTO David Schwartz addressed the community's concerns regarding Coil, the company's web-based monetization platform. The practical limitations he revealed offer important insights not only for the XRP community but also for those contemplating the future of digital payment systems.
A user on X (formerly Twitter) asked Schwartz to continue developing the Coil project. He was candid about the situation, saying, "We're kind of stuck. It's pretty complicated." Schwartz used the email system as an example, explaining that Coil was aiming for a model that combined a "universal namespace," like a wallet address on the Internet, with a "universal protocol," like SMTP, which handles sending and receiving email.
However, Schwartz pointed out that creating a universal remittance protocol with full interoperability with all payment methods is practically impossible. He added that while there are ways to enable remittances through the Interledger Protocol (ILP), it would be difficult to enforce ILP adoption in the current financial ecosystem where various payment methods coexist.
Within these limitations, Ripple developed an alternative called "paystring." This technology supports a variety of account types, including XRP Ledger (XRPL) addresses, Bitcoin (BTC), Interledger endpoints, PayPal, and Zelle. However, Schwartz emphasized that this, too, does not guarantee perfect interoperability.
In particular, he added that regulatory barriers have been a major obstacle to inter-system transfers other than self-custody in the past, and it remains unclear whether these issues have been resolved.
Coil shut down in 2023. The platform operated on a subscription basis, delivering real-time micropayments to creators through a dedicated web monetization API. Its developer was Stefan Thomas, former CTO of Ripple, and the core technology, the Interledger protocol, was developed alongside him.
This statement isn't simply a lingering effect following the retirement of the CTO. It's a meaningful example, expressed in the words of Ripple's chief technology officer, of why the ideal of a truly "universal payment protocol" remains elusive across the cryptocurrency ecosystem.
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