Ripple’s lending system for banks and payment companies has gained three $XRP Ledger validator votes in as many weeks, leaving it seven short of the 29 required to begin a two-week countdown to launch.
The $XRP Ledger changes its rules through amendments. An amendment takes effect only after more than 80% of the 35 validators on the network’s default list (29 in total) support it for two consecutive weeks.
As of Wednesday, data showed ‘LendingProtocol’ and its first patch, LendingProtocolV1_1, with 22 yes votes each. ‘SingleAssetVault,’ the amendment that creates the pools into which lenders deposit, had 23. Lending draws funds from those vaults, so both amendments must meet the threshold.
When CoinDesk last counted, on Oct. 19, the lending system had 19 votes and the vaults had 21. The tracker’s Nov. 10 snapshot already showed 22 and 23, indicating the new votes were in by Tuesday; the count had not changed by Wednesday.
The design places considerable responsibility on those who provide funds. A lender deposits $XRP or another token into a vault, and a loan broker lends it for a fixed term without borrowers posting collateral.
The ledger’s documentation says the system “relies on off-chain underwriting and risk management,”, leaving the broker’s judgment — supported by some first-loss capital the broker puts up — as depositors’ only protection.
Ripple has presented the setup to payment companies that need cash while cross-border settlements clear.
Not all vote counts rose. ‘ConfidentialTransfer,’ which would conceal token balances, fell from 22 to 21 during the period. ‘DynamicMPT,’ which allows token issuers to change a token’s settings after launch, dropped from 18 to 16. The dashboard publishes only counts, and its daily records note that there are “no per-validator rows on any public surface.” So it is possible to count validators who changed their votes, but not identify them.
Developers are moving ahead with work even before the vote.
A pull request dated Nov. 4, #8685, remains open and would add a third lending amendment, LendingProtocolV1_2. It would allow a bundle of transactions opening a loan, along with the escrows tied to it, to fail as a unit if another loan with the same broker is processed first.
The cleanup fix, which repaired parts of the lending code before it could be used, went live on Nov. 4 at ledger 108,112,129. SingleAssetVault now needs six more yes votes, while the lending amendment needs seven. Lending cannot open until both maintain 29 for two weeks.
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