01What
Locks XRP behind a cryptographic condition — a lock whose key is a secret value (the fulfillment). Whoever presents the secret can release the funds to the destination.
02Why you'd use it
Use it when release should depend on an event, not a clock: payment on delivery, a cross-chain swap, or a prize claimable only by whoever has the answer.
03How
- 1Generate a condition/fulfillment pair off-ledger (the five-bells-condition library does this; the AI builder can generate the code). The condition is the public lock; the fulfillment is the secret key.
- 2Enter the Destination Address and the Amount in XRP.
- 3Paste the hex Crypto-Condition (starts with A0258020...).
- 4Set Cancel After in seconds — the escape hatch if the secret is never revealed. It is required here for good reason.
- 5Submit, confirm tesSUCCESS, and record the sequence number. Guard the fulfillment until you mean to release.
Watch out
- Lose the fulfillment and the funds are stuck until the cancel time — the ledger cannot recover secrets.
- Once a fulfillment is used on-ledger it is public forever; never reuse a condition pair.
- Finishing a conditional escrow costs a higher transaction fee than normal (it scales with fulfillment size) — still small, but not the usual 10 drops.
- The condition proves knowledge of the secret, not delivery of goods — pair it with a process both sides trust for revealing it.
For example
A buyer escrows 300 XRP for a freelance job, locked to a condition. When the work is delivered and approved, the buyer hands the freelancer the fulfillment — the freelancer finishes the escrow and is paid without ever trusting the buyer to 'send it later'.