Here’s Why XRPL Might Be Years Away from Smart Contracts Release

The much-anticipated «Hooks» amendment is set to activate smart contracts functionality for veteran blockchain XRP Ledger. However, according to its seasoned enthusiast, the platform is nowhere near «Hooks» mainnet launch.

«Most controversial and sensitive upgrade» might take «endless weeks»

Wo Jake, an XRP Ledger enthusiast and software developer, shares his estimation of the timeline of «Hooks» activation on XRPL. He admitted that XRP community members are anxiously waiting for this amendment to be implemented.

#XRPL: Many people have asked @WietseWind, @XRPLLabs and others about the state of the Hooks amendment and here’s my observation: It’s not ready, it won’t be up for voting in a longgg time. ?(1/6)

— Wo Jake (@woj4ke) August 31, 2022

Based on his answer, XRP holders should not be waiting for this upgrade in the midterm. Mr. Jake revealed that, by press time, the codebase for this upgrade includes over 13,185 new lines of code.

This makes the «Hooks» upgrade the most controversial and sensitive for the «conservative» XRP Ledger network. All changes should be stress-tested and audited by XRPL maintainers from Rippled.

To make this upgrade secure and seamless, the team is going to spend «countless weeks, many months.»

Hooks might initially be activated in a federated sidechain

XRP supporters appreciated Mr. Jake’s feedback and shared their proposals on how to speed up the development of Hooks. Namely, they proposed the creation of a federated sidechain (separate network) for «Hooks» activation.

The developer admitted that this variant has been considered by XRPL engineers but stressed that their final decision is yet to be made.

Yes, there are plans for this, but no promises! Its native token will be XRP.

As covered by U.Today previously, XRP Ledger unveiled the beta testnet version of XRPL Hooks in February 2021.

Once activated in mainnet, the «Hooks» mechanism will allow XRPL to join the club of programmable blockchains.

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