Wietse Wind, a top developer building on XRP Ledger (XRPL), has raised an argument regarding amendments on the protocol. The developer argued that an audit is not enough.
XRPL developer pleads for better amendments testing
Wietse Wind emphasized via an X post that XRPL amendments need better testing. In essence, the developer is urging XRPL validators to stop treating protocol amendments as just casual updates.
Notably, an amendment is a new feature or proposal for the XRP Ledger, like adding or improving transaction types. It requires over 80% approval from trusted validators via voting to go live. Once activated, it is permanent and network-wide.
In his post, Wietse Wind called out three common but insufficient testing methods for testing XRPL amendments. The developer said audits, hackathon and dev testing are not enough to determine the security of an XRPL amendment.
“All of them combined, several iterations,” the XRPL developer noted. This means audits, hackathons and dev testing are all needed, he repeated rigorously.
He went on the warn validators against voting “yes” to amendments just because it is cool or it has support from community members.
The statement from Wind is aimed at prioritizing the security of the XRP Ledger. Importantly, one bad amendment can break the network, enable exploits or lock funds.
Latest XRPL amendments spotlighted
Meanwhile, Wietse Wind recently expressed excitement about an incoming XRP Ledger feature, Batch (XLS-56). This feature allows multiple transactions to be bundled into a batch, all processed together.
Wind, however, noted that the Batch feature may encounter challenges; a lack of understanding, which might cause a setback in support.
In contrast, Uphold executives have applauded a new amendment, the Multi-Purpose Token (MPT) Standard, for solving regulatory compliance issues.
For emphasis, the new token standard will allow financial institutions such as banks and asset managers to issue fungible tokens. As a result, banks can issue stablecoins, bonds or tokenized real-world assets directly on XRPL.
Furthermore, popular XRPL validator Vet claimed that he has voted to veto the Token Escrow amendment. He argued that it would be more prudent to wait until the token escrow is fixed so that it can properly support multi-purpose tokens.
Source: https://u.today/xrp-ledger-needs-more-than-audit-and-hackathon-lead-dev-says
