Ripple Tests EVM-Compatible XRP Ledger Sidechain
- Once fully launched, the new sidechain will allow developers to write apps using Solidity, and enable XRP Ledge users to interact with Ethereum smart contracts and dapps.
- The EVM-compatible sidechain is currently in its first testing phase, but its official launch is expected to happen sometime in the second quarter of 2023.
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Ripple is planning to bring Ethereum smart contracts to its users, and is now testing a new Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) XRP Ledger (XRPL) sidechain, blockchain developer RippleX said in a blog post on 17 October.
According to the announcement, the EVM-compatible XRPL sidechain — which will allow users to interact with Ethereum decentralized applications (dapps) in the future — was launched on company’s devnet, a restricted experimental network used to test XRPL implementations. The firm behind the project, Peersyst, has also introduced a bridge between the EVM-compatible sidechain and the XRPL Devnet, enabling developers to deploy existing Ethereum dapps. RippleX wrote:
“By building an EVM sidechain and bridge, we are making XRPL features accessible to more developers that would benefit from XRPL advantages like fast, low-cost transactions at scale. Developers can also leverage the sidechain and bridge to use XRP within the EVM sidechain environment.”
The EVM-compatible sidechain is currently in its first phase of testing, and will be limited to a select group of developers. Phase two is expected to begin in early 2023, transitioning the sidechain to a “permissionless” with improved scalability, making it open to the public. Ripple expects to launch phase three in the second quarter of next year, officially launching the EVM-compatible sidechain with a bridge to the XRPL Mainnet.
The company noted that throughout all three phases, the EVM-compatible sidechain will feature block and finality times similar to the XRPL Mainnet, as well as support Ethereum smart contracts and DApps such as Metamask, Remix, and Truffle.
- A federal judge ruled that the sale of XRP through exchanges and algorithms did not qualify as selling securities, which could have a major impact on several SEC lawsuits.
- The institutional sale of the token, however, did violate federal securities laws, and the lawsuit between the SEC and Ripple will have to go to trial.
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- These documents are seen as central in Ripple’s battle against the SEC, which in 2020 accused the company of selling its XRP token without registering it as a security.
- The documents in question are internal emails, text messages, and expert reports that followed Hinman’s 2018 speech, in which he said ETH and BTC were not securities.
- The Solana network experienced a noticeable slowdown in block production after its most recent 1.14 network upgrade was implemented last week.
- In order to avoid similar issues in the future, one-third of Solana’s core engineers will now be focused on stability and adversarial testing.