- Ripple proposes withdrawing XChainBridge and its related fix through community review and validator upgrades.
- Axelar continues to connect the XRPL EVM Sidechain with mainnet.
- Removing the unused implementation could eliminate more than 10,000 lines of xrpld code.
Ripple has urged the XRP Ledger community to withdraw XChainBridge, the pending amendment also known as XLS-38. An August 27 recommendation also targets the related fixXChainRewardRounding amendment.
The company says Axelar already handles the XRPL EVM Sidechain’s main bridging needs. It cites weak developer demand and maintenance costs, but cannot withdraw the proposal without wider network support.
Why Ripple Wants XChainBridge Withdrawn From XRPL Voting
The design uses witness servers to verify activity across chains and support asset transfers. It was intended for private, permissioned and experimental sidechains, alongside the public EVM network.
Ripple says expanding witness networks increases coordination demands and complicates accountability. Running a large public bridge also exceeded its operational expertise, according to the post.
The company selected Axelar in June 2024, but kept the amendment available for voting. Its validator continued voting against activation while developers had 12–15 months to show demand.
Ripple cited Axelar’s network of more than 75 validators, shared signing system and regular security-key rotation. Its post pointed to experience connecting more than 55 blockchains, which Ripple argues reduces operational complexity. Axelar is not a direct substitute for every private-sidechain use case.
Ripple now says the review found too few concrete projects requiring XLS-38. Withdrawing XChainBridge would allow developers to remove more than 10,000 lines from xrpld.
Validator Upgrades Would Decide the Proposed Withdrawal
Ripple controls one validator vote and cannot impose the change. Developers would first submit an xrpld pull request marking XChainBridge as VoteBehavior::Obsolete.
Servers running that release would always vote against the amendment, regardless of operator preferences. As validators upgrade, support would decline.
Once all active validators treat it as obsolete, a later release could remove both implementations. That includes XLS-38 and its reward-rounding fix, not Axelar’s bridge. The related fix preserves downward rounding when distributing rewards for cross-chain transactions.
The XRPL EVM Sidechain connection would continue operating through Axelar. Ripple invites developers with active XChainBridge projects or concrete plans to challenge its assessment. Feedback can be submitted through GitHub or the XRPL developer Discord during the comment period.
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