The XRP Ledger lending code fix is close to taking effect, but the lending amendment still lacks 10 votes

The XRP Ledger vulnerability fix package named fixCleanup3_4_0 is expected to officially take effect around 09:34 UTC on October 23. This fix package has received votes from 29 validators, surpassing the threshold of over 80% approval among the network's default 35 validators, and must be maintained continuously for two weeks. The countdown has been ongoing for nine days. Since there is no margin in the vote count, if any validator withdraws support, the countdown will restart.

This fix package partially addresses the unsecured lending system that Ripple has been promoting to banks and payment companies since June, but this system has not yet been activated. Currently, the lending amendment has only 19 votes, and the vault amendment for holding funds has 21 votes, neither of which has started the countdown. Therefore, even if both reach 29 votes today, the lending function will not be available until early November at the earliest.

As designed, lenders will deposit XRP or other tokens into the vault, and loan brokers will then lend out the funds for a fixed term. The ledger is responsible for recording the loans and tracking repayments, while brokers assess the borrower's qualifications off-chain. Since borrowers do not need to provide collateral, the broker's judgment becomes the only guarantee for lenders against default losses. Ripple has promoted this scheme to payment companies that need liquidity during cross-border settlement. Additionally, the fix package also closes a vulnerability that allowed accounts authorized to destroy tokens to create new tokens under specific conditions and adjusts the rounding of vault amounts as well as the rules for determining loan overdue and default.