How a payment happens · Lesson 1 of 4

What a transaction is

A transaction is the only way to change anything on the XRP Ledger.

A transaction is the only way to change anything on the XRP Ledger. Sending XRP is the most common kind, but transactions also change account settings, swap keys, place offers on the built-in exchange and more.

Sending one takes a few steps. Your wallet writes the transaction, signs it with your key and submits it to a server. The server passes it on to the rest of the network, and the network agrees on which transactions go into the next ledger version.

Once signed, a transaction can't be edited: any change would break the signature. Every transaction gets a unique ID called a hash, and anyone can look it up, so the hash works as proof that a payment happened.

A transaction that fails can still be recorded in a ledger, and it still pays its cost. That stops anyone flooding the network with failing transactions for free.

Sources

• Transactions (xrpl.org) (checked 2026-10-22)

General information about how the XRP Ledger works, not financial, legal or tax advice.