Ripple's developers have been engaging with feedback and suggestions that they expand the XRP Ledger, or XRPL, to integrate functionalities such as smart contracts. The latter have become a major feature of the booming decentralized finance space, but Ripple's creators claim that a different solution is better for the payments-focused XRPL.
This solution comes in the form of what they term “federated sidechains” i.e. parallel ledgers that can support developers' experimentation and specialized interests, whether for DeFi or other use cases. Using sidechains can leave the main XRPL streamlined and efficient while expanding the functionality of the wider XRP ecosystem by offering interoperability for native smart contracts and other features.