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- The “Hooks” amendment for XRP Ledger deploys a C++ based SSVM runtime engine to operate with speed and modification ease.
- The testnet for the amendment will be launched in the first quarter of 2021.
The expected deployment of the “Hooks” amendment to the XRP Ledger is getting closer. XRPL Labs’ Chief Developer, Wietse Wind, has made a further update on the progress of the feature that will integrate basic smart contract capabilities into the XRP Ledger.
According to the update, the development team used a Rust project, known as Wasmer, as the runtime engine of the “Hooks” amendment. However, the limitations for the use case using the “Hooks” has led the team to use a runtime engine for web assembly based on the C++ programming language called SSVM.
In this way, they were able to dispense with additional system construction tools and achieved “optimal integration”. Wind believes that this solution will allow “Hooks” to operate at good speed allowing the engine to be modified according to future needs and developments. Wind said:
To profile the new engine we ran the Carbon hook (which takes 1% of your outgoing transaction and creates a new transaction to a carbon offset account).
The results indicated that the SSVM engine allows them to achieve 2-10 times the speed of a Rust solutions applied in the early stages of development. In addition, the SSVM takes 177 microseconds to execute the amendment code. Wind added the following about the developers’ current work:
Installing ccache on our development machine has made a huge difference to build times which are now typically under 60 seconds. A caching compiler keeps a hash of source code and compiler flags and the output that produced last time. If the same inputs are provided it skips the compile altogether and provides the same output as last time.
A testnet for the Hooks amendment on the XRP Ledger
Despite the progress made by the XRPL Labs team, Wind says that the development of “Hooks” is still long. As reported by CNF, Wietse announced the release of “Hooks” in 2020. However, the developer estimates that about 80% of the work is still to be done once they can launch the first “fully formed” prototype. Wind announced the next target for the project:
The next major milestone is the Hooks public testnet to be released this quarter (Q1 2021). Stay tuned!
In parallel with the launch of the first amendment milestone, the Flare Networks smart contract platform is scheduled to be activated on the XRPL mainnet by mid-year. Flare’s CEO Hugo Phillion has stated that Flare Networks will bring smart contracts in an environment of interoperable liquidity with blockchains such as Litecoin, Stellar Lumens and even Bitcoin. Thus, XRP Ledger users will be able to benefit from the expanded capabilities and use cases of the XRPL.
Hooked #4 – Every Microsecond Counts (replacing Wasmer by SSVM).
This is a progress update blog for the up-coming XRPL Hooks amendment.https://t.co/JJrYqQWKic
— WietseWind (🛠+🪝 Xumm @ XRPL Labs) (@WietseWind) January 18, 2021
