Crypto
Home›Crypto›Market Structure›Ripple recommends cutting over 10,000 lines of dormant…
Ripple recommends cutting over 10,000 lines of dormant XRPL code
Ripple says it wants to remove more than 10,000 lines of unused XChainBridge code, tied to a bridge architecture it no longer uses after moving the XRPL EVM sidechain work to Axelar.
Ripple is recommending steps to reduce the XRPL’s attack surface as it prepares to expand native lending, according to CryptoSlate. The company has proposed withdrawing dormant functionality by removing more than 10,000 lines of unused XChainBridge code, while the Lending Protocol V1.1 undergoes an AI-only security review through Sherlock’s Audit Engine.
Ripple said the original rationale for keeping XChainBridge weakened after it shifted the XRPL EVM Sidechain effort to Axelar and broader demand for the native bridge did not materialize. XChainBridge was designed to move assets between XRPL and connected sidechains using witness servers that observe transactions and attest to activity across networks, supporting sidechains that could be private, permissioned, and experimental.
The company argued that the witness model carries trade-offs that become harder to manage as the value protected by a bridge increases. Ripple said expanding the witness set could improve decentralization but would add coordination and governance complexity, while a smaller set would concentrate trust among operators.
Ripple said the inactive code creates ongoing maintenance and security-review costs, and it estimates that withdrawing XChainBridge and the related fixXChainRewardRounding amendment would eventually remove more than 10,000 lines from xrpld. It also said the recommendation would not remove XLS-38 immediately because Ripple controls only one validator vote, and the proposal must still pass the XRPL amendment process.