RippleX developers propose cross-chain bridge with protection against hacks

• RippleX developers have proposed a cross-chain bridge with a new XRPL standard.
• The developers have addressed concerns related to bridge hacks, in light of the increasing attacks on cross-chain bridges.

Developers from XRP Ledger (XRPL) and Ripple development lab RippleX have proposed a cross-chain bridge for XRPL in a bid to expand potential use cases and increase interoperability between different blockchain networks.

The developers recently submitted XLS-38d on Github, which is the XRPL standard for said cross-chain bridge. 

Community raises questions about bridge security 

According to the proposal on Github, the XRPL standard laid out the guidelines and specifications for developers to build applications on the XRPL.

The proposed standard would enable tokens from one blockchain to be locked in an account on the XRP Ledger while issuing an equivalent amount of tokens on another blockchain.

Mayukha Vadari, a software engineer at RippleX, co-authored the XRPL standard with fellow developer Scott Determan.

In a recent Tweet, the RippleX engineer addressed concerns regarding the security of the proposed cross-chain bridge in the event of a hack.

When asked about the security of funds in case a bridge hack takes place, Vadari revealed that the team had spent a lot of time thinking about security and dedicated a whole section of the spec to this issue. 

Furthermore, the RippleX developer also entertained the idea of a hackathon for the bridge, in the interest of bridge security.

The team is reportedly looking into an independent security audit as well. According to the proposal, the cross-chain bridge will use a Signer list, which will allow emergency actions such as transferring funds during a hack. 

Cross-chain bridge hacks have become something of a menace for the crypto industry, especially the decentralized finance space.

According to a report by blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis, nearly $2 billion have been lost to cross-chain bridge hacks.

The bulk of these hacks was perpetrated last year, where attacks on bridges accounted for 69% of total funds stolen throughout the year.