XRPL Foundation Reintroduces Proposal For Issued Tokens To Use Escrow And Payment Channels

The proposal could allow for broader use cases for these features.

Two members of the XRPL Foundation (XRPLF) have authored a proposal to allow issued assets access to negotiable payment features on the XRP Ledger, like escrow and payment channels.

XRP Labs senior developer Wietse Wind shared the GitHub release of the proposal, dubbed XLS-34d, in a tweet yesterday.

https://t.co/sG6aYeBQT2 😎😮🤩

— WietseWind – 🛠 XUMM @ XRPL Labs (@WietseWind) January 23, 2023

For context, the XRPL has an arsenal of features that enable negotiable payments like escrow, payment channels, and checks. However, in the status quo, users can only escrow and use XRP in payment channels.

Notably, the escrow service allows users to lock up XRP until a set condition is met, while the payment channels feature enables users to make “asynchronous” payments, which can be broken down into small amounts and settled at a preferred time.

Per the proposal, restricting these features to XRP prevents them from gaining wider adoption.

It bears mentioning that this is not the first time that members of the XRPLF have made this proposal. A member of the group first made this proposal last April. Then it was codified as XLS-27d. However, the authors have deprecated it in favor of XLS-34d, per the GitHub release.

So far, it has received mostly positive reviews from members of the XRP community. Scott Chamberlain, the co-founder of Evernode, a proposed XRPL Layer 2 smart contract platform, asserted that it would pave the way for new use cases and business models.

Meanwhile, another user pointed out that it could revolutionize the process of token distributions and airdrops, as there will no longer be a need to trust issuers and escrows will completely automate the process. However, the user also noted that it carries risks, as issuers could be able to freeze tokens.

It is currently unclear when voting will start on the proposal. It could be the XRPL’s biggest update since the XLS-20d amendment ushered in native NFT functionality last Halloween.