According to the latest “highly technical” blog post by Wietse Wind of XRPL Labs, the “Hooks” amendment that is going to empower XRP payment instruments with basic smart contracts functionality is on track to release testnet.
“Well on track for public testnet”: Wietse Wind on Hooks amendment
In his detailed blog post, Mr. Wind shared that he and his team were laser-focused on the transaction logic of “Hooks” in the last few weeks. Previously, they replaced web assembly runtime engine Wasmer with SSVM to achieve the maximum performance of the new system.
Hooked #5: Consensus
A new blog about our work on the Hooks (Smart Contract) amendment for the XRP Ledger. Warning: this is a highly technical blog 🤓🤓🤓
Spoiler: we're on track for a Q1 public Hooks enabled Testnet release 😎https://t.co/c9QPqwZTMs
— XRPL Labs 🪝 (@XRPLLabs) February 5, 2021
Mostly, their latest efforts (after the Tech Preview release) were focused on so-called “emitted transactions.” Mr. Wind explained that these transactions occur when a “hook” attempts to create new transactions separately from triggering “original” transactions.
To solve this conflict, emitted transactions are now inserted into a special directory in the ledger instead of direct emission into the transaction queue. There, emitted transactions are approved and confirmed by all validators before being broadcast to the blockchain.
The next development stage will reconsider the “Slot” function of Hooks API. “Slot” will allow Hooks to read the information from the ledger. All in all, Mr. Wind is confident about the scheduled public testnet date:
We are well on track for a Q1 testnet release.
XRP and smart contracts: two approaches
Mr. Wind invited all developers interested in writing “Hooks” to read all of his blogs and source code repositories. Public testing is just right around the corner.
Finally, Flare Networks, another team tasked with the implementation of smart contracts for XRP users, also reported significant progress.
