Developers of the XRP Ledger (XRPL) have introduced a fresh idea for a cross-chain bridge that they claim will increase the usefulness of the blockchain. The GitHub request was uploaded by Ripple software engineer Mayukha Vadari, who also shared a link to it on Twitter.
Ripple’s vice president of strategy and operations recently stated that a new cross-chain bridge proposal might “substantially increase” the possible use cases for the XRP Ledger, the native network of the $XRP coin. The suggestion was shared on Twitter after being posted on GitHub by Mayukha Vadari, a software developer with Ripple. It describes how a blockchain bridge may be built.
Vadari clarifies that a bridge does not transfer assets between ledgers. In its place, assets are locked on one ledger (the “locking chain”) and represented as wrapped assets on a different chain (the “issuing chain”). A box filled with an endless number of wrapped objects is a useful visual to keep in mind.
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A wrapped asset will be released onto the issuing chain when an asset from the locking chain is placed within a box. One of the current locking chain assets will be put back onto the locking chain when a wrapped asset from the issuing chain is placed back into the box. There is no other method to put or remove assets from the box. Keep in mind that the box cannot run out of wrapped assets— it has an infinite supply. The idea “would dramatically extend possible use cases for XRPL,” according to Emi Yoshikawa, vice president of strategy and operations at Ripple.
As of this writing, the price of XRP is $0.387. The market cap of the sixth-ranked cryptocurrency asset has decreased over the last day by around 1.5% and over the last week by more than 3%.
XRP has similarly lost more than 88.5% of its value after reaching an all-time high of $3.40 in January 2018.
As the blockchain ecosystem has expanded and varied, cross-chain bridges have gained importance. Decentralized apps (dApps) now have more options thanks to the ability to transfer assets and data between multiple blockchains, which also presents the new potential for traders and investors.
Developers may use cross-chain bridges to take advantage of the distinctive properties of various blockchains, which is one of their main advantages. A
blockchain may be speedier and more scalable in one case while having greater privacy features in another.
Developers may combine these characteristics to build more robust and adaptable apps by linking various blockchains through a bridge, which will also make it easier for consumers to move their assets across chains and improve interoperability. Yet there are certain concerns associated with cross-chain bridges as well.
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It can be difficult to move assets across blockchains, and there’s always a chance that the bridge code has flaws or other security holes. Moreover, there may be further centralization problems if outside witnesses are used to confirming cross-chain transactions. Cross-chain bridge protocol flaws have become a “high-security issue,” according to Chainalysis’s report from the previous year.
The XRP Ledger allows native NFTs because of the XLS-20 standard, according to Ripple’s chief technical officer David Schwartz, as reported by CryptoGlobe late last year. The construction of NFTs on the XRPL is made highly compact and efficient by the XLS-20 standard, limiting any adverse influence on the XRP Ledger’s performance and preventing congestion at scale, according to the specification. The standard has already been activated on the mainnet, according to Ripple’s CTO, and presents a significant milestone for developers and builders employing the XRPL for their NFT projects and apps.