XRP News Today: XAO DAO Launches First Decentralized Governance on XRP Ledger

XAO DAO, a Wyoming-based limited liability company (LLC), has announced its plans to launch the first decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) on the XRP Ledger. This initiative aims to bring a new era of decentralized innovation to the XRPL network, allowing users to participate actively in its governance. The DAO, co-founded by Fabio Marzella and Santiago Velez, will enable XRPL network users to vote on allocating network resources to support ecosystem projects and other proposals once they become members.

The focus of XAO DAO is on real utility, governance, grants, and community, rather than on speculative activities. The DAO emphasizes the importance of transparent processes and user empowerment. Voting within the DAO will be based on the amount of XRP held at the time of the snapshot, with all votes carrying equal weight. Interested individuals can already sign up for the waitlist to become members.

XAO DAO is expected to provide a governance mechanism for distributing the 1 billion XRP that Ripple allocated to develop the XRPL ecosystem. Currently, Ripple has been handling the allocation of grants to projects on XRPL. However, a newly formed XRPL Foundation is set to take over this responsibility, utilizing the XAO DAO governance system to determine grant recipients. The XRPL Foundation’s bylaws include XAO DAO as a board member, along with XRPL Commons, XRPL Labs, and Ripple Labs.

XAO DAO founder Santiago Velez explained that the DAO governance application will use both the XRPL and the XRPL Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) sidechain. The XRPL will record membership of the LLC, while the sidechain will be used to mint and burn governance tokens for each proposal and vote. This dual-chain approach aims to enhance the efficiency and transparency of the governance process.

With the introduction of decentralized governance, many in the XRP community view this as a significant step towards full decentralization. This development is seen as a sign of maturity for the network and could potentially boost innovation and decentralized finance (DeFi) activity on XRPL. Despite being around for 13 years, the network has struggled to generate significant activity compared to its peers. However, recent developments, such as the integration of Circle USDC and the launch of tokenized US treasuries by Ondo Finance, suggest that this could change.

The XRPL EVM sidechain is also set to deploy soon, further enhancing the network's capabilities. Additionally, XRP itself is positioned to increase adoption by both traditional finance (TradFi) and DeFi. The launch of an XRP exchange-traded fund (ETF) on the Toronto Stock Exchange by asset manager 3iQ, along with the development of DeFi protocols around XRP, indicates growing interest and activity within the ecosystem. The network activity has already seen a boost, with a 3-month average for active addresses now at 295,000. XRP has also held steady despite recent volatility and is up more than 1% today.