The escrow wallet with address rDdXiA3M4mYTQ4cFpWkVXfc2UaAXCFWeCK was unlocked a few hours ago today, May 1, 2019.
The recent whale sized transaction worth about $308 million at current prices was carried out on the XRP blockchain. The XRP was unlocked from the escrow account at Ripple.
About Ripple’s Escrow
An escrow account is a type of account that ensures added security to trade by keeping funds with a third party.
Ripple’s escrow is a little bit different from conventional escrows because it is pre-made for a large number of accounts over an extended period.
Ripple’s about 55 billion escrow is used to control the supply of XRP, with the ledger itself acting as the third party also.
How Ripple’s Escrow Work
Every month, Ripple releases 1 billion XRP into the market from its escrow account. The entire system is controlled by a consensus mechanism.
According to a report on Ripple’s blog, the circulating supply is not actually increased by 1 billion as some of the escrow is moved back to the escrow as orchestrated by market conditions. The blog post also stated that from the locked 55 billion, 3 billion XRP has been added to the current circulating supply.
According to estimates, at an average of 214.3 million every month, the entire escrow supply is expected to run out by 20 years from now in April 2039.
Use Cases for XRP
XRP has been making a lot of waves in the crypto industry, its use case has been on the rise especially with several of its developments and product launch.
Developments like the XRPL Labs, Ripple funding Wietse Wind to develop XRP-centric applications, Forte which serves as a tool for game developers to integrate blockchain technology into new and existing games.
Other developments include Bolt Labs, known as a payment channel needing zero-knowledge proofs, blind signatures, and commitments. Ripple’s integration with WooCommerce, a payment method used by over 3.3 million people all over the world.
All these products and partnerships have helped increase the adoption and use cases of XRP.
