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Nik Bougalis for RippleX Developers

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Announcing the Latest XLS-20 Release to Enhance NFT Functionality on the XRPL

Earlier this month, version 1.9.0 of rippled was released with key contributions from RippleX, including XLS-20 and performance improvements to enhance network stability.

XRPL’s Built-In NFT Functionality
First publicly put forward last May, XLS-20 is a standard proposed to enhance NFT support on the XRP Ledger (XRPL). XLS-20 provides developers access to essential NFT functionality, such as minting, trading, and burning. Along with operations to enumerate, transfer and hold these tokens, other advanced features like automatic royalties (which enable more sophisticated royalty structures for creators) and co-ownership of assets are also built into the proposal.

Enhancing NFT functionality on the XRPL will likely bring a significant increase in transaction volume. As a responsible participant in the XRPL community, Ripple validators have been configured to vote “no” on the XLS-20 amendment until we feel confident in understanding the impact of NFTs on XRP Ledger Mainnet. In the meantime, we are conducting rigorous performance testing to assess the implications of additional transaction load on the XRPL and eliminate potential bottlenecks. Our team will share our results with the broader community once completed.

The XRPL is a public decentralized blockchain, and proposed amendments to the network require 80% of validators to vote in favor of the amendment before new code can be implemented on the mainnet. Though Ripple validators will vote “no” for now on the XLS-20 amendment, RippleX engineers have proposed it in the meantime to present it to the community, enabling developers to test NFT functionality and ensure a seamless user experience long-term by reducing the probability of merge conflicts later on.

Release Highlights: Performance and Stability Improvements

As part of our ongoing commitment to helping maintain the health of the XRPL, a number of performance improvements were included in XRPL 1.9 including: reduced memory usage for pathfinding, optimized trust line caching, and increased network efficiency and stability.

Also introduced were improvements to ledger-fetching logic, lock decongestion, and limited lock-free programming capabilities.

The Road Ahead

The features in this latest release are proposed and operated by XRPL server operators which demonstrates a shared commitment to improving the XRPL’s performance and innovation.

We remain committed to developing best-in-class functionalities, tools and open protocols that help developers scale and build utility on the XRP Ledger.

To learn more about improvements and new functionality in XRPL 1.9, visit www.xrpl.org.

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