Ripple researchers have published a formal cryptographic paper detailing a new privacy protocol for the XRP Ledger. The proposal, designated XLS-0096, introduces confidential transfers for Multi-Purpose Tokens and would shield transaction amounts and account balances from public inspection. The ledger stays auditable. Validators keep their oversight role intact.
The paper, posted to the Cryptology ePrint Archive on March 26 and approved March 27, 2026, comes from three Ripple engineers: Murat Cenk, Aanchal Malhotra, and Joseph A. Akinyele. It sits at the intersection of regulatory compliance and cryptographic privacy. Not an easy needle to thread.
How the Cryptography Actually Works
The core mechanism replaces standard per-account token balances with EC-ElGamal ciphertexts. That means balances are stored in encrypted form on-chain. To confirm a transfer is valid without reading the actual numbers, the protocol uses non-interactive zero-knowledge proofs, which let validators check that a sender has enough funds and that supply limits hold without decrypting anything.
Per the published paper on the Cryptology ePrint Archive, the protocol “preserves public supply verifiability” while keeping individual balances hidden. Sender and receiver wallet addresses stay visible on the ledger. Only the amounts go dark.
The open-source reference implementation, mpt-crypto, is already live on GitHub. It is a C library built on libsecp256k1 and OpenSSL. Experimental testing confirms that proof verification fits within existing XRPL validator performance limits.
According to ChartNerdTA on X, the feature is described as a “Privacy-Focused Feature Designed to HIDE Transaction Amounts and Account Balances From the Public While Keeping the Ledger Auditable by Authorized Parties. COMPLIANTLY.”
Compliance Isn’t an Afterthought
The design keeps issuers in control. Freeze and clawback functions work normally even on confidential balances. That matters a lot for regulated asset issuers who cannot legally give up those controls.
Auditability is handled through what the paper calls a “selective-disclosure model.” Authorized auditors get access to encrypted balance data on-chain. An issuer can add multiple auditor public keys to an AuditorPolicy, each receiving its own encrypted balance field. Adding more auditors costs more storage but the system handles it.
The XRPLF GitHub discussion for XLS-0096 drew detailed technical questions about auditor flexibility. One commenter asked how many distinct auditor roles the system supports: external auditors, regulators, custodians, compliance teams. Murat Cenk responded directly that theoretically any number of auditor public keys can be listed, and removing a key revokes that auditor’s future access.
The spec also accommodates simpler audit setups. Issuers who prefer a trust-based view-key model instead of on-chain ciphertexts can use that path too.
Public and confidential balances coexist within the same MPT framework. An issuer does not need to choose one or the other across the entire token issuance. That interoperability with existing MPT semantics was a deliberate design decision.
Scope: MPTs Only, Not XRP
One question that came up repeatedly in the GitHub discussion: can this apply to regular XRP payments?
The answer, per the authors, is no. Not within this proposal. Cenk wrote that while the same cryptographic techniques could apply to native XRP payments in theory, doing so would need separate protocol-level design work. The ledger structures and invariants for XRP differ from those of MPTs.
The XLS-0096 spec was merged into the XRPL Standards repository after the GitHub discussion was closed in March 2026. Before that, the spec spent several months in discussion. Reviewers flagged inconsistencies in how mutability flags aligned with the existing DynamicMPT amendment. The authors updated the specification in response.
The mpt-crypto library supports Bulletproof range proofs, ElGamal encryption and decryption, equality proofs, and proof of knowledge of secret keys. Proof sizes and verification costs cleared production readiness checks in the experimental evaluation included in the paper.
Key Takeaways:
- Ripple published XLS-0096, adding hidden balances and transfer amounts to XRP Ledger MPTs via zero-knowledge proofs.
- Sender and receiver identities remain public; only amounts are shielded, keeping compliance controls like freeze and clawback intact.
- The open-source mpt-crypto library is already live on GitHub, with proof sizes confirmed suitable for production validator use.
