RippleX Head of Engineering J. Ayo Akinyele has published an in-depth analysis exploring whether the XRP Ledger (XRPL) could someday support native staking, sparking new debate about how the network’s incentives and governance model will evolve.
This proposal comes at a time when XRPL’s DeFi presence remains limited despite 13 years of activity. Ripple chiefs David Schwartz and Brad Garlinghouse also expressed support for moving XRPL beyond its payments-centric origins into broader decentralized finance (DeFi) capabilities.
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What will XRP native staking look like, according to Ripple engineers?
According to Akinyele, XRP has evolved far beyond its origins as a fast-settlement asset and now serves important functions in liquidity, real-time value movement, and tokenization. The recent launch of the first XRP ETF further highlighted the growing relevance of this asset.
“Given how the utility of XRP can continue to expand with new features, a natural question arises: What if the XRP Ledger (XRPL) supported native staking? What would that mean for the network design and the asset itself?” Akinyele wrote.
In a detailed post, RippleX executives explained that XRPL’s Proof of Association consensus works differently than traditional Proof-of-Stake systems. Fees are burned rather than redistributed, and validator trust is earned through performance rather than monetary stakes.
“Two things are essential for XRP native staking to exist: the first is a source of staking rewards, and the second is a way to distribute it equitably,” the executive added.
Akinyele stresses that such capabilities are not simple additions. We need to rethink how value circulates within the network while maintaining XRPL’s stability and decentralization.
Schwartz, one of the original architects of the XRP Ledger, also joined the conversation. He outlined two experimental ideas that are circulating within the engineering community.
The first idea is a two-tier consensus model. In this design, an inner layer of 16 validators is selected by an outer layer based on stake. This internal validator set uses staking and slashing mechanisms just to advance the ledger.
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The second idea is to keep XRPL’s current consensus model unchanged. Instead of rebuilding validators, we propose using transaction fees to pay for zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs that confirm the correct execution of smart contracts.
Using this approach, the nodes themselves do not need to execute smart contracts. Schwartz said both ideas are technically great, but not realistically feasible “any time soon.”
“About two-layer consensus: It is a lot of work and risk. The benefits for network stability and robustness are mainly theoretical, and there are no current problems in either area… Regarding the ZKP mechanism: Technically it is very cutting-edge and complex. Without a lot of adoption, zero gain will take a lot of effort,” he said.
With programmability efforts and smart contract discussions underway, Schwartz said it’s the right time to consider what new native DeFi capabilities will ultimately look like.
“The XRP Ledger was created in 2012. Since then, the blockchain world has changed many times. My own ideas about governance and consensus models have evolved. I have been thinking about how XRP can be used in DeFi (organically with apps and protocols like Flare, MoreMarkets, Axelar, Doppler, etc.) and natively on-chain,” he commented.
This discussion has sparked interest among XRP holders, especially as XRPL’s presence in the DeFi sector remains relatively small.
According to DeFiLlama, the XRP Ledger currently holds $75.77 million in Total Value Locked (TVL). This is a modest number compared to Ethereum’s roughly $71.36 billion and Solana’s $9.443 billion.
Once introduced, native staking has the potential to attract additional capital from investors seeking reliable on-chain yields, accelerate the growth of XRPL within the DeFi ecosystem, and expand the utility of XRP.
