Recently, developers working on the XRP Ledger, the native network of the $XRP coin, released a new cross-chain bridge proposal. According to Ripple’s vice president of strategy and operations, this proposal has the ability to “substantially extend” the possible use cases of the XRP currency.
Mayukha Vadari, a software developer with Ripple, was the one who first submitted the suggestion on GitHub, and it was then reposted on Twitter. It provides an overview of the feasible construction of a blockchain bridge.
As the blockchain ecosystem has expanded and become more diverse, cross-chain bridges have become an increasingly vital component. The capacity to transfer assets and data across multiple blockchains has provided new opportunities for investors and traders, in addition to opening up new doors for decentralized apps (dApps), which can now take use of these new possibilities.
One of the primary advantages of cross-chain bridges is that they make it possible for developers to take use of the distinctive qualities offered by various blockchains. For instance, one blockchain may have improved speed and scalability, while another blockchain may have enhanced privacy protections.
Developers are able to combine these characteristics to build applications that are more powerful and versatile by linking various blockchains via a bridge. This also enables users to transfer their assets smoothly from one chain to another, which boosts the interoperability of the network as a whole.
But, cross-chain bridges do come with their own share of dangers. The process of moving assets from one blockchain to another may be a difficult one, and there is always a chance that the bridge code might have errors or flaws that could be exploited by malicious actors.
In addition, the use of third-party witnesses to validate cross-chain transactions might generate additional concerns associated with centralization. The previous year, Chainalysis made the observation that vulnerabilities in cross-chain bridge protocols had recently become a “top security worry.”
According to a report published by CryptoGlobe, Ripple’s chief technical officer David Schwartz said around the end of 2017 that the XRP Ledger is able to enable “native NFTs” because of the XLS-20 standard. The XLS-20 standard enables the “generation of NFTs on the XRPL highly compact and efficient,” which reduces any potential negative influence on the performance of the XRP Ledger and helps prevent congestion at scale.
