XRPL-BONDS was developed for the XRPL Hackathon 2025, a competition focused on building innovative financial applications on the XRP Ledger. The hackathon challenges developers to leverage XRPL's native capabilities—fast settlements, low fees, and built-in tokenization—to create real-world financial solutions. XRPL-BONDS addresses the complexity of bond issuance and management by making it accessible, transparent, and fully on-chain.
XRPL-BONDS solves the fundamental problem of bond issuance and management without requiring traditional financial intermediaries. Most bond platforms are centralized, opaque, and require extensive paperwork and coordination between issuers, investors, and custodians. XRPL-BONDS is intentionally streamlined: issuers create bonds as XRPL tokens with predefined parameters (maturity, interest rate, denomination), investors purchase directly on-chain, and payments (interest and principal) are distributed automatically via smart contract logic. No intermediaries, no manual settlements, no opacity. The entire bond lifecycle—from issuance to maturity—is trustless and transparent because it lives natively on the XRP Ledger.
Building a full-stack financial application with XRPL integration presented several learning curves. The hardest pieces were:
- Wallet Security: Implementing AES-256 encryption for XRPL seeds while maintaining usability
- Transaction Flow: Orchestrating the complete flow from user authentication (JWT + 2FA) through encrypted seed decryption to signed XRPL transactions
- State Management: Synchronizing on-chain XRPL data (balances, transaction history) with off-chain MongoDB user data
- 2FA Integration: Building a robust two-factor authentication system with email verification codes
- Mobile UX: Creating an intuitive React Native interface that abstracts blockchain complexity for end users
- Frontend App (this repo): https://github.com/gamween/XRPL-BONDS.git
- Backend Server: https://github.com/gamween/XRPL-SERVER.git
XRPL-BONDS turns bond issuance into a single-transaction process that auto-manages the entire lifecycle on-chain. Issuers define bond parameters once (amount, rate, maturity), and the system handles distribution, interest payments, and principal redemption automatically via XRPL trustlines and payment channels. Unlike platforms that require custodians, manual coupon payments, or opaque settlement processes, XRPL-BONDS is trustless, transparent, and leverages XRPL's native speed (3-5 second finality) and low costs (<$0.01 per transaction). The product proves it end-to-end: create bonds, investors buy via trustlines, payments execute automatically, and all history is auditable on-ledger.
- React Native: Cross-platform mobile development
- Expo: Development framework and build tooling
- React Navigation: Stack and tab navigation
- AsyncStorage: Persistent local storage for tokens
- Axios: HTTP client for API communication
- Express.js: RESTful API server framework
- MongoDB + Mongoose: User data persistence and schema validation
- JWT (jsonwebtoken): Stateless authentication tokens
- bcryptjs: Password hashing (10 rounds)
- Nodemailer: 2FA code email delivery
- xrpl.js: Official XRPL JavaScript SDK
- XRPL Testnet: Development and testing environment
- Trustlines: Token issuance and distribution mechanism
- Payment Channels: Automated interest and principal payments
- AES-256-CBC: Seed encryption for wallet storage
- 2FA: Email-based verification codes (6 digits, 10min expiry)
- CORS: Cross-origin request protection
- Environment Variables: Sensitive configuration isolation
Financial institutions, corporate treasurers, and individual issuers who need:
- Small-to-medium bond issuances without investment bank fees
- Transparent settlement for regulatory compliance
- Instant distribution to global investor bases
- Programmable payments for complex bond structures (callable, convertible, floating-rate)
Secondary users include investors seeking direct bond exposure without custodial risk, and regulators who benefit from on-chain audit trails.
Closest competitors include traditional bond platforms (Bloomberg Terminal, Tradeweb) and emerging blockchain bond solutions (Polymath on Ethereum, Securitize on Polygon). These solutions either:
- Require intermediaries: Custodians, transfer agents, paying agents add cost and delay
- High gas fees: Ethereum L1 makes frequent coupon payments economically unviable
- Slow finality: 12+ second block times create settlement risk
XRPL-BONDS eliminates all three issues:
- No intermediaries: Issuer → XRPL → Investor direct
- Sub-cent costs: $0.00001 per transaction enables micro-payments
- 3-5 second finality: Real-time settlement removes counterparty risk
Where others add layers of coordination around bond management, XRPL-BONDS removes the need for coordination entirely by embedding logic into the payment rail itself.
Bottom-up adoption through cost savings:
- Start with corporate treasurers at mid-size companies issuing $1M-$50M bonds where traditional underwriting fees (2-5%) are prohibitive
- Leverage XRPL community: Existing XRP holders become natural early investors
- Regulatory sandbox partnerships: Work with forward-looking regulators (Singapore MAS, UAE VARA) to establish legal framework
- Open-source tooling: Publish bond issuance SDKs to enable third-party platforms to integrate
No paid acquisition needed—cost savings of 90%+ on issuance fees drive organic word-of-mouth in treasury and CFO networks. One issuer using XRPL-BONDS exposes it to their entire investor base, creating viral distribution built into every bond issuance.
- User registers (email/password) → bcrypt hash stored in MongoDB
- Login triggers 2FA code generation → sent via Nodemailer
- Code verification → JWT token issued (24h validity)
- Token validates all subsequent API calls via authMiddleware
- User creates wallet → XRPL keypair generated client-side
- Seed encrypted (AES-256) → stored in MongoDB
- Transactions require seed decryption → sign → submit to XRPL
- Results synced back to frontend via API responses
- Issuer defines bond (amount, rate, maturity) → creates XRPL token via trustline
- Investors set trustlines → purchase tokens via XRP payment
- Smart contract logic (off-chain scheduler + on-chain payments) distributes coupons
- At maturity, principal auto-redeems via XRPL payment channels
Why XRPL?
- Native multi-currency support (no smart contracts needed for tokens)
- Deterministic 3-5 second finality
- $0.00001 transaction costs enable frequent coupon payments
- Built-in DEX for secondary bond trading
Why MongoDB + XRPL hybrid?
- XRPL for immutable transaction history and payments
- MongoDB for mutable user profiles, KYC status, and encrypted seeds
- Best of both: blockchain security + traditional DB flexibility
Why React Native?
- Single codebase for iOS + Android
- Expo simplifies deployment and OTA updates
- Native feel with JavaScript familiarity