XRP Ledger Developers Test Zero-Balance Account Creation Proposal, with Sponsors to Cover 1 XRP Reserve Requirement

Odaily reports that XRP Ledger developers are testing a new feature that would allow the creation of blockchain accounts with a zero initial balance, with existing accounts covering the reserve requirement for new accounts, in order to lower the funding barrier for payment applications and automated software to create wallets at scale.

The proposal was submitted on October 15 as the SponsoredAccountCreate transaction proposal. Under current XRP Ledger rules, each account must hold at least 1 XRP as a reserve, meaning that creating 100,000 separate accounts would require locking up 100,000 XRP. The new proposal would have a sponsoring account cover this reserve requirement, and a broader fee-sponsorship mechanism in the future could also allow applications to pay transaction fees on behalf of users, though the network's overall reserve requirement would not be eliminated as a result.

The feature is expected to lower the barrier to use for scenarios such as embedded wallets, RLUSD stablecoin payments, and automated payments by AI agents. However, the relevant code is still under review, and the sponsorship mechanism it relies on has not yet launched on mainnet. As of October 19, the mechanism had received only 11 of the 35 required validator votes, still short of the 29 votes needed for approval. (CoinDesk)