Ripple: Next Two Weeks Crucial as XLS20 Amendment for Native NFT Support Opens for Voting

Ripple's vice president of corporate strategy and operations, Emi Yoshikawa, has announced the start of a two-week countdown on XLS 20 Amendment v1.9.2, which would enable native non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on XRP Ledger. At least 80% of validators have to vote in favor of the proposal over two weeks for it to go into effect.

XRPL Amendment v1.9.2 (Xls20) - 2 weeks countdown has begun! pic.twitter.com/3MZaT0Yr4M

— Emi Yoshikawa (@emy_wng) October 17, 2022

The XLS-20 proposal for native NFTs on XRPL hopes to make the creation of NFTs compact and efficient, reducing any negative impact on XRP Ledger's performance and avoiding congestion at scale. With features like minting and auctioning built into the standard, XLS-20 seeks to bring significant ease to the developer's creation process.

The XLS-20 proposal had already faced an initial setback following the discovery of a bug. Shortly afterward, Nik Bougalis, director of engineering at Ripple, unveiled a new version of the proposal incorporating a fix to the bug identified.

First phase of EVM sidechain launches

Peersyst, a provider of blockchain software, has announced the launch of the first XRPL Sidechain compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). The EVM sidechain has launched its first phase — the Devnet version.

Phase 2 of the project, which is scheduled to begin in early 2023, will feature a permissionless EVM sidechain and bridge with a unique design that connects to the XRPL Devnet to increase participation and test scalability in a controlled environment. The final phase will be a permissionless EVM sidechain and bridge made available on XRPL mainnet.

Ripple CTO David Schwartz presented his ideas for an EVM sidechain last September to bring Ethereum smart contracts to XRP Ledger (XRPL) and lower the barriers to entry for programmers looking to create apps with cross-chain interoperability.