tl;dr
Ripple has announced plans to enhance the programmability of the XRP Ledger in early 2025. The developments include introducing native smart contract capabilities on the XRP Ledger Mainnet and deploying the XRPL EVM Sidechain, which will bring Ethereum Virtual Machine compatibility to the XRP commun...
Ripple has announced plans to enhance the programmability of the XRP Ledger in early 2025. The developments include introducing native smart contract capabilities on the XRP Ledger Mainnet and deploying the XRPL EVM Sidechain, which will bring Ethereum Virtual Machine compatibility to the XRP community. These advancements aim to broaden the appeal of the XRP Ledger to a global developer community and enhance its functionality across multiple platforms.
The initiative also emphasizes Ripple's commitment to nurturing a platform that empowers developers and businesses to create revolutionary applications. Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse highlighted the strategic importance of these developments, stating that they will contribute to the robustness of crypto infrastructure serving real-world use cases.
The initiative entails the introduction of native smart contract capabilities directly on the XRP Ledger Mainnet, aiming to enable developers to implement smart contracts that can execute automatically without central oversight. Simultaneously, Ripple is nearing the deployment of the XRPL EVM Sidechain, which is expected to go live on the devnet soon and promises a significant acceleration of programmability features in early 2025.
The XRPL EVM Sidechain is designed to bring Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) compatibility to the XRP community, allowing developers to employ familiar tools and programming languages, thereby broadening the XRP Ledger's appeal to a global developer community. The architecture not only broadens the usability of XRP but also enhances its functionality across multiple platforms.
Wrapped XRP (eXRP) will serve as the native asset and gas token within the sidechain, ensuring transactions are both secure and efficient. The native smart contract functionality on the XRP Ledger Mainnet is underpinned by the ledger's inherent features such as Escrows, NFTs, authorized trustlines, payment channels, and the decentralized exchange (DEX) and Automated Market Maker (AMM).
Despite the promise of enhanced flexibility and capability, the amendment process of the XRP Ledger, necessary for implementing new layer-1 features, will remain the same, ensuring that updates are secure and beneficial across the community. Ripple emphasizes its commitment to accelerating the momentum further in early 2025, addressing the common needs of institutional DeFi users and developers, while empowering them to tailor solutions to their specific business or dApp requirements.
Ripple and the broader XRP community are committed to nurturing a platform that not only advances in technology but also empowers developers and businesses to create revolutionary applications.
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse emphasized the strategic importance of these developments, stating, "the foundations of crypto infrastructure serving real-world use cases are steadily becoming more robust by the day."
At press time, XRP traded at $0.5668.