Blockchain payments company Ripple has announced plans to introduce smart contracts to the XRP Ledger (XRPL) mainnet. According to the announcement, this upgrade aims to enhance the Layer 1 blockchain’s programmability and allow developers to build tailored applications.
Since its launch in 2012, the XRP Ledger has been primarily used by banks and financial institutions for cross-border payments. Ripple noted that adding the smart contract feature is part of its strategy to attract more developers and participants to the blockchain network.
The feature is anticipated to increase XRPL’s flexibility and enable developers to leverage existing components—such as escrows, NFTs, trust lines, payment channels, and decentralized exchange features—to create innovative decentralized applications.
The Ripple team noted that developers can deploy these smart contracts without undergoing a formal amendment process or needing approval. They stated that the feature operates on advanced and reliable security standards to ensure the contract codes are secure, efficient, and straightforward to deploy.
Meanwhile, Ripple also revealed plans to launch the XRPL EVM Sidechain early next year in partnership with blockchain infrastructure provider Peersyst. This sidechain is expected to enable XRPL developers to utilize Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) tools and programming languages.
“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,”
the Ripple team wrote in the announcement.
These developments follow Ripple’s moves to enhance XRPL’s functionality by boosting its dominance in the real-world asset (RWA) tokenization sector. The company recently teamed up with OpenEden, a leading asset tokenization company, to bring tokenized U.S. Treasury bills (T-bills) to the blockchain. It also committed $10 million to invest in these tokenized T-bills to demonstrate its confidence in this new asset class.
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