Ripple’s XRP Introduces Wallet Termination Capability.

When bitcoin was first launched, it brought with it a semi-new concept called wallets. Although the concept of e-wallets was present already, bitcoin’s implementation was completely new. Cryptocurrencies, in general, are based on decentralization. As such, people are the sole controller of their own funds. No central authority is involved and so, there is no chance of the usual interventions.

Wallets enable users to transact with their cryptos. But until now, they didn’t have the option to delete these wallets. There are thousands of wallets that exist but are never used. This doesn’t exactly reduce the performance of a blockchain but it is a feature that is nice to have. Ripple did exactly that. The company has introduced xrp wallet termination capability for its cryptocurrency, XRP.

Read more: What is the difference between Ripple and XRP

Deletable XRP Wallet

Ripple Xrp wallet

XRP runs on a distributed ledger network and now this network has the ability to process wallet deletion commands. This feature was introduced only after a community vote. As with other blockchains, the consensus of the community was important for this feature to go live. The XRPL blog announced this feature in a post on May 6.

Former XRP Center manager, Arturo Portilla, recently tweeted about this feature. He tweeted, “After maintaining an 80% consensus during the mandatory 15-day voting period, the XRPL Deletable Accounts Amendment became enabled on May 8, 2020, at 4:29:30 UTC, through the ledger 55,313,921”.

The way this works is pretty simple. As it is well known, accounts in the XRP ledger represent holders of XRP. Thus, only the owner of an account (wallet) can delete it. To do so, the owner has to send a transaction from the account to be deleted. After doing so, the account no longer exists on the XRP ledger. However, its history is still preserved and its past transactions can be viewed.

To account for mistakes, Ripple has also included the ability to revive an account. To do this, anyone can send 20 XRP to a deleted wallet which revives it for all intents and purposes. However, only the one with the private keys will be able to transact with the wallet. (Developers portal)

The feature is already live on the XRP ledger. Users have already tested it and it works. Several of them have tweeted about it on Twitter. In fact, many have used this feature to get back stuck XRP in old accounts. On the ledger, you need a minimum balance of 20 XRP. So, by deleting old accounts, you get the stuck XRP.

Users also have the option to have two wallets. These can be deletable wallets and non-deletable wallets. Some special accounts, like those used for escrows, fall under the non-deletable category. This would ensure that no harm comes to the important functions that some accounts serve. It is small features like these that push the crypto industry forward.