10,000 Votes Target Achieved to Bring Smart Contracts to XRP Ecosystem

The XRP community has overwhelmingly supported introducing smart contract-like functionalities on the XRP blockchain, which Hooks would facilitate.

Recently, Vet, an XRP Ledger ambassador, surveyed the XRP community’s stance on introducing smart contract functionalities to XRPL via Hooks. Vet conducted the poll via the social media platform X over the weekends.

The poll asked, “Do you want Hooks, native Smart Contracts, on the XRP Ledger?”

Participants were given two options: yes or no. At press time, the inquiry has concluded with an overwhelming majority voting affirmatively for Hooks.

Specifically, the poll attracted 11,503 respondents, with 93.6% voting “yes,” while just 6.4% picked no.

Do you want Hooks 🪝 , native Smart Contracts, on the XRP Ledger ?

— Vet 🏴‍☠️ (@Vet_X0) February 10, 2024

Needed 10,000 Votes Materialize

Technically, 10,766 individuals have endorsed introducing smart contract-like functionalities to XRPL. Importantly, this substantial endorsement carries significant weight in the broader decision-making process regarding the approval of Hooks for XRPL.

Specifically, Richard Holland, the CTO of XRPL Labs and lead architect of Hooks, recently revealed that the smart contract-based proposal must be integrated into the Rippled codebase before it can undergo a vote.

He further explained that the team will initiate a new pull request if the community garners 10,000 affirmative votes on a poll for Hooks on mainnet.

After the recent poll garnered over 10,000 affirmative votes, Vet resurfaced Holland’s remarks, accompanied by a cheerful emoticon, indicating that the community has achieved the necessary milestone for the Hooks team to proceed with renewed efforts to introduce smart contracts to XRPL.

Besides, Richard Holland himself acknowledged the development in a statement on X. Holland asked the RippleX team to “send some engineers and funding” over to the crew handing Hooks.

“We’ll need help porting Hooks to the mainnet,” he remarked.

It’s over 10,000. @RippleXDev @ripple please send some engineers and funding our way … we’ll need help porting Hooks to mainnet 💪 https://t.co/L5DjvACcki pic.twitter.com/Kol45XrOpT

— RichardAH 🪝 (@RichardXRPL) February 11, 2024

Concerns with Hooks

Meanwhile, there have been lingering concerns about the coming of Hooks to XRP Ledger. An X user has voiced reservations that the community members who endorsed the development likely have limited knowledge about its potential risks.

They argued that enabling Hooks “paves the way for other smart contracts and detracts from what actually makes XRPL robust.”

Besides, Ripple’s CTO David Schwartz has expressed similar reservations by pointing out that Hooks poses a multi-billion dollar risk for the XRP ecosystem.

Schwartz is concerned that Hooks could potentially reshape XRPL into a network resembling Ethereum. Emphatically, the idea is that it deviates from XRPL’s fundamental purpose as a payment protocol.