A huge gulf exists between the XRP and Ethereum ecosystems. While some investors own both assets, they have been unable to use them together due to the lack of a trustless bridge between the two multi-billion-dollar blockchains.
A new project is now aiming to combine the best of XRP and ethereum, allowing XRP users to access ethereum applications while providing a scaling platform for ethereum.
Flare Networks’ Bridge For XRP And Ethereum
Flare Networks, which partnered with Ripple’s Xpring back in 2019 to introduce smart contracts to the XRP Ledger, has proposed the introduction of a trustless two-way bridge between XRP and ethereum.
According to Flare’s official announcement, this will be the first governance proposal that the foundation will be required to vote for. If the proposal goes through, the XRP on Flare Networks known as FXRP will also be used on the Ethereum ecosystem. In addition, FXRP will also provide a scaling platform for the decentralized applications and tokens on Ethereum. Notably, Ethereum is still battling scalability issues as users wait for the long-awaited ETH 2.0 upgrade to arrive.
Meanwhile, XRP users will be able to access the existing ethereum applications as XRP expands its use cases.
Ripple chief Brad Garlinghouse recently spoke about the importance of the bridge between Ripple and Ethereum that Flare is working on, stating:
“From my point of view, Flare is combining the best of XRP (very fast settlement), Ethereum (smart contracts), and Avalanche (for consensus) which helps extend XRP’s utility and allows developers to create smart contracts for new use cases like lending and DeFi.”
Other Interoperability Efforts
Flare Network’s proposed bridge will bring together two different systems. Ethereum is a blockchain platform that has become home to the fast-growing Decentralized Finance (DeFi) sector. XRP, by contrast, is a cryptocurrency that is used by banks and other financial institutions for near-instant and low-cost money transfers across the world. To that end, Flare hopes to bring together these two ecosystems.
Although this initiative is quite significant, it is certainly not the first time Ripple has pursued interoperability with Ethereum. Earlier in the year, Xpring announced its support for joining forces with the ethereum ecosystem. In particular, Xpring called for developers to build a bridge between XRP, ETH, and ERC-20 tokens.
It remains to be seen whether a bridge that connects Ripple with Ethereum will be built eventually.
