Ripple Proposes Deletable Accounts for XRP Ledger

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Ripple may introduce a new feature that would allow XRP Ledger users to delete their accounts, according to an announcement from CTO David Schwartz.

“One new feature proposed in the amendment process is Deletable Accounts and [it] is waiting to acquire and retain an 80% supermajority, before it activates. This feature allows XRPL accounts to be removed from the ledger and recover most of the reserve locked in the accounts for spam prevention,” said Schwartz of the feature.

The main advantage for users is reimbursement: opening an account currently requires a 20 XRP deposit, and users who delete their account would be able to recover part of that cost.

In order to be activated, the amendment featuring deletable accounts will need to attract 80% approval from validators for two weeks. This allows the community to give feedback and influence validators.

Several features have been introduced through amendments in the past, including multi-signing, on-chain escrow, and payment channels. However, deletable accounts are a relatively high-profile change.

How Deletable Accounts Work

Deletable accounts would make it possible to “completely remove an account from the [XRP] ledger and remove the reserve from that account,” according to the original specs.

Despite concerns, the proposed feature does not seem to give Ripple any deletion powers at all. Nik Bougalis, author of the proposal, has clarified that only account owners hold this power. “Only someone that is able to sign a transaction for the account can delete that account,” Bougalis explains.

Though Ripple itself cannot abuse the proposed deletion feature, account owners may be able to do so by deleting a large amount of important metadata, which could disrupt other transactions.

Fortunately, the proposal has limits and fees in place to stop overdeletion. It also seems that account records will remain visible in the ledger’s history, so transparency may be unaffected.

Other Ripple Developments

This news comes alongside reports of a new Ripple partnership. Egypt’s National Bank intends to use Ripple’s RippleNet platform in order to handle inward remittances, according to news outlet Youm7.

Several other banks and financial firms have partnered with Ripple in recent months, including Thailand’s Siam Commercial Bank, Latin America’s Intermex, and the London-based Finastra. Related to this international growth, Ripple has reported growing demand for its on-demand liquidity services.

Third parties are integrating the XRP cryptocurrency as well. In recent months, BitPay and BitMEX added XRP to their payment network and derivatives exchange, respectively.

Despite Ripple’s continued success, the project remains controversial. XRP’s uncertain securities classification, combined with Ripple’s alleged centralization, have attracted widespread criticism.

Update: Deletable Accounts were enabled on May 8, 2020

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