XRP API Intro

One of my responsibilities at work is to assist exchanges (sites that trade bitcoin, etc) support Ripple’s digital asset, XRP.

Ripple’s documentation team is fantastic. Everything that an exchange needs to know is found on ripple.com/build. Still, a newcomer to that documentation may not know where to start, and that could slow things down.

To keep things moving fast, my approach is to give these exchanges a “jump start”. By that I mean a brief (one to two hours) presentation, at the end of which they…

  1. understand the key concepts of Ripple’s XRP Ledger
  2. know the essential pages on ripple.com/build
  3. have wallets (hot and cold) to start using immediately

The last item is what I want to write about here.

This “jump start” slide deck, unlike most I present, is powered by javascript. I ask viewers to follow along in their own browser. This is important because, eventually, the presentation will show values to copy and paste. (Can’t easily copy from a screen at the front of the room.)

I mention javascript, because this deck is not simply showing an example command and previously captured output, the way most slides do. Rather, it shows an example command, and runs it, then shows the live result of the command.

An early example is slides #14 and #15, which show the server_info result. This is the actual response from a live server, shown in real time. It takes a sharp eye to notice it, but fields including “uptime” and “completed_ledgers” change values in the time that it takes to navigate from slide #14 to #15.

As the slides advance, they explain how to set up a Ripple address as a hot wallet, and another as a cold wallet. The deck not only shows the commands to do this, it actually runs those commands, behind the scenes. So by the end, the user has an actual hot and cold wallet (on the test net) ready to use.

Find the presentation here. (Chrome is recommended, although any modern browser with javascript enabled should work.)

The deck is not intended to be stand-alone. Ideally, I’d provide a voice-over, highlighting important points. Still, if you follow the link above, it should be fairly easy to follow. Use left and right arrow keys to navigate slides.

Be aware that as the deck shows public and private keypairs, these are yours to use. They are generated in your browser, known only to you, and you can use them, immediately, on Ripple’s test net!