The major worries of the XRP community regarding potential centralization and regulatory hazards of utilising the XRP currency as a medium in cross-chain value transfer are expressed by the author of the pseudonymous community-driven account @WKahneman.
Various blockchains, various XRP tokens?
In the XRPL-focused developer community, there is a discussion on the specifics of XLS-38d, an adjustment to the XRP Leger protocol enabling cross-chain interaction, according to the thread published by @WKahneman on Twitter. In essence, the developers voiced worries over its components that may end up serving as possible centralization sites.
of particular, “witness” servers, a third-party validator of the equivalence of assets of various parties engaged in the bridge, are part of the potential architecture of cross-chain bridges in the XRP Ledger. If the “issuer” locked 100 XRP so that the “recipient” might unlock 100 eXRP (“mirrored” assets), it should be checked and proven.
This “witness” should be believed by both sides since it has the potential to dramatically impact the asset bridging process, which is why it has too much centralised authority. Furthermore, off-chain coordination is needed in this approach.
Additionally, this server may be threatened by regulations. It will need a licence in some jurisdictions since it directs money transfers and manages the bridge.
As a result, diverse IoUs based on XRP may lead to the development of several XRP-based synthetics with various use cases, liquidity ecosystems, and other characteristics. This offers the potential for a dangerous imbalance.
Why cross-chain bridges matter
Last but not least, since alternative bridge solutions become a part of the overall design of the XRP Ledger, all bottlenecks must be taken into account:
The main problem here is that the bridge is made a native component of the #XRPL by XLS-38d. Existing external bridges provide a risk, which the XRPL does not take on. That changes with XLS-38d. What are the benefits of making the bridge native then? Does it merit the dangers?
The possible costs of such solutions, resource efficiency, and other topics are further discussion vectors for XRPL’s cross-chain solutions.
Cross-chain bridges, or noncustodial methods of value transfer between many diverse blockchains, are essential for the liquidity ecosystems of major blockchains and dApps, as previously reported by U.Today.
At the same time, because of their technological designs, they are vulnerable to assaults, manipulations, hacks, and other types of malevolent behaviour. Cross-network bridges were successfully breached by a series of nine-digit attacks in 2022.
