The XRPL EVM sidechain, developed in collaboration with Ripple and Peersyst, has launched in a new version of devnet. The initial version of the EVM sidechain for XRP Ledger (XRPL) was released on devnet in October last year.
Because it uses a proof-of-authority (PoA) consensus method, the EVM sidechain allows developers to iterate on their projects and apps faster and use popular smart contract languages like Solidity while having access to XRP liquidity and a bridge to XRP Ledger.
RippleX, the team in charge of XRPL development and support, said on June 26 that the EVM sidechain was now available in a new version of devnet (v2).
This new version includes a decentralized bridge design based on the XLS-38d standard that supports XRP, IOU and ERC-20 token transfers in both directions between the XRP Ledger and the EVM sidechain.
Other changes include reducing block time from 5.4 to 3.5 seconds per block, improving chain performance by upgrading Tendermint to the Comet BFT consensus algorithm and implementing a PoA validator election mechanism.
Others include: faucet support to facilitate onboarding (for XRP and tokens), the addition of support to bridge ERC-20 and IOU tokens and the implementation of a Witness Bridge to now employ XChain transactions to natively secure bridge transfers between XRPL and the sidechain with XLS-38d.
Next steps
According to a blog post, the first version of the EVM sidechain will be retired within the next month.
A security audit of the EVM sidechain is planned for July, with the results to be made public for the community to analyze. Peersyst and Ripple will take appropriate steps to address any issues, and this information will be shared with the community.
Following the approval of the XLS-38d bridge amendment, the EVM sidechain is likely to go live on the mainnet. The bridge is contingent on the amendment being proposed, followed by at least 80% of the XRPL validator community accepting the proposal and upholding their vote for at least two weeks.