Ripple, the San Francisco-based crypto solutions company and cross-border payment firm has announced plans to integrate smart contracts into the XRP Ledger (XRPL), the powerhouse of XRP.
Announced in a September 3 post, Ripple noted that the smart contracts feature will be launched in the XRPL Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) sidechain they developed in collaboration with the blockchain firm Peersyst.
“This sidechain will 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,” Ripple wrote.
The firm added that the planned smart contracts feature would also be available on the XRPL mainnet. While the specific launch date was not disclosed as Ripple is still in the research stage, the positive development is expected to go live in 2025.
Read also: Ripple Payments Network Expands to 80+ Markets, Boosting XRP Adoption
Benefits of smart contracts functionality on XRP Ledger
The move is aimed at onboarding developers, users and projects onto the XRPL ecosystem given that smart contracts primarily allow for the deployment of decentralized applications (dApps).
For the uninitiated, smart contracts are self-executing contracts stored on the blockchain with the terms of the agreement directly written into lines of code. First introduced on Ethereum, smart contracts allow for the building of new applications or dApps (layer 2 projects) on an existing blockchain platform commonly known as layer 1.
According to Ripple, bringing smart contracts to the XRPL developer ecosystem would expand the capabilities of the platform. Also, it would introduce new use cases to the ecosystem, thereby attracting builders, users and entrepreneurs alike.
“Ripple and the broader XRP community are committed to bringing new programmability, including smart contracts, to the XRPL dev ecosystem in 2025 – through the XRPL EVM sidechain (already in the works) as well as exploring native capabilities on XRPL Mainnet,” part of the announcement read.
Read also: Ripple Stablecoin to Launch on XRP Ledger and Ethereum in 2024
To achieve this, Ripple said they are open to inputs from XRP community members regarding design specifics. In addition, the firm said they are eager to partner with decentralized finance (DeFi) developers. Per the report, Ripple has invited programmers familiar with EVM languages to explore possibilities on its sidechain.
About Author
