XRP Ledger Dead Man's Switch Amendment Resurfaces, Community Weighs In

Cover image via U.Today Disclaimer: The opinions expressed by our writers are their own and do not represent the views of U.Today. The financial and market information provided on U.Today is intended for informational purposes only. U.Today is not liable for any financial losses incurred while trading cryptocurrencies. Conduct your own research by contacting financial experts before making any investment decisions. We believe that all content is accurate as of the date of publication, but certain offers mentioned may no longer be available. Read U.TODAY on Google News The need for XRP Ledger (XRPL) to consider an automatic inheritance mechanism has again been reemphasized. A member of the community on X with the user name Leonidas noted that having this mechanism in place will prevent XRP from being permanently lost due to death or inactivity. Advertisement XRPL dead man's switch proposal to prevent loss of XRP Leonidas shed light on an earlier proposed XRP Ledger "dead man’s switch" amendment. He stated that the amendment is to guarantee an automatic transfer of assets to pre-set beneficiaries after an account has been inactive for a specified period of time. This idea was originally suggested by XRPL contributor Kris Dangerfield in November 2024. Just like Leonidas, Dangerfield believes the dead man's switch will enhance user safety and adoption. After his suggestion, progress on implementation stalled until September 2025. Currently, given the security associated with self-custody wallets, if someone loses their private keys or dies without sharing their details, the asset becomes permanently inaccessible. Hence, Leonidas believes activating the XRPL dead man’s switch could prevent associated loss of assets. XRPL "dead man's switch" ☠️ ⚠️One of the biggest concerns around crypto and self custody is the chance of losing your keys or failing to transfer ownership to an heir, in case of death. There have been many examples of holders losing millions of tokens, including $XRP , due to… — Leonidas (@LeoHadjiloizou) January 17, 2026 Notably, millions of dollars’ worth of crypto assets, including XRP, have already been lost due to the death of the holder or loss of the private key. However, if a "dead man's switch" is added to XRP Ledger, it will serve as a fail-safe mechanism. The idea is that if the original account shows no activity for a predefined period, the system would automatically transfer the XRP to the beneficiary’s account. This will prevent the loss of XRP upon the death of the original holder. Leonidas believes that the implementation of a dead man's switch could reduce the fear of losing funds forever. The feature will also make self-custody more attractive and increase long-term confidence in holding XRP outside exchanges. XRPL utility push gains momentum You Might Also Like Sat, 01/17/2026 - 10:23 Ripple CTO Emeritus Issues Scam Alert on Copy Trading, What's Real Risk? By Tomiwabold Olajide In another development, a top Ripple developer Panos Mekras has advocated for a shift in speculative trading of XRP. Mekras charged the community to build network utility and make XRP Ledger a leading chain . He opines that this will make for mass adoption and prevent XRPL from fading into irrelevance. Mekras insists that real usage and network activity will strengthen XRPL and stop it from underperforming relative to other blockchains. Meanwhile, the COO of XRPL Labs and Xaman Wallet, Robert Kiuru, has said the next frontier of the XRP Ledger ecosystem will be batch transactions. According to Kiuru, to make XRPL more sustainable, there is a need to build and operate proper businesses on the ledger. #XRP Ledger