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

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.

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.

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.