The Dilemma Of Distributing Tokens On XRP Ledger: Ripple CTO Chimes In

Xahau, a new smart contract sidechain, is set to launch, and as part of efforts to boost interoperability between the XRP Ledger and Xahau, the Chief Technology Officer of XRPL Labs, Richard AH, has proposed making an amendment to XRPL’s mainnet. 

A Reversed Burn2Mint Mechanism

In a tweet shared on his X (formerly Twitter) platform, Richard AH noted that XRP’s mainnet doesn’t support reversed Burn2Mint for issued currencies. According to him, if the protocol were to be amended, it would allow any form of wrapped XRP to be moved in both directions (from the XRP mainnet to the Xahau sidechain and back). 

Richard further noted that this amendment could also allow the wrapped XRP to be counter-party free if it was “made via a transactor on mainnet.” He stated this proposed move could help make XRP valuable on the Xahau chain.

The Xahau has the XRP+ as its native token, and one way this token is created is by burning XRP on the mainnet and getting the XRP+ in return through the Burn2Mint portal.

Richard’s tweet suggests that there are still interoperability issues between both chains despite Xahau being a fork on the XRP Ledger. For one, the XRP+ token cannot be used on the XRP Ledger even when wrapped. 

Since both chains are connected, one will expect that XRP and XRP+ will share the same standard protocol and can be easily moved across the XRP Ledger and Xahua. However, Richard noted that the XRP+ uses the XLS35 standard protocol with “a metadata standard built in,” and this XLS35 protocol isn’t “wanted on mainnet” according to him.

Ripple’s CTO Chimes In

Following Richard’s tweet, Ripple’s Chief Technology Officer David Schwartz quizzed him about the possibility of moving issued XRP+ tokens back to the mainnet. He further noted that the Burn2Mint protocol can’t work “both ways” (on the XRP Ledger and Xahua chain) because it might be difficult for the XRPL to know when Burn2Mint has taken place on the Xahua chain. 

Schwartz also raised concerns about what could happen if the Xahau chain were to fork, as the mainnet will face the dilemma of having to decide which “side of the fork” should continue implementing the Burn2Mint. 

Meanwhile, Richard has offered to draft an XLS proposal on the reversed Burn2Mint for issued currencies will work. He, however, suggested that this proposal could face some pushback from the mainnet validators, highlighting the “mainnet politics” involved in passing such proposed amendments. 

As part of the governance of the XRPL mainnet, validators usually have to vote on technical disputes and proposed amendments to the blockchain. One instance is how these validators are currently voting to implement the novel AMM design on the XRPL mainnet.