The XRP Ledger is moving toward an upgrade that could let businesses assign limited account permissions to other accounts, allowing specific tasks such as payments or customer approvals without exposing the keys that control the entire account.

PermissionDelegationV1_1 entered its 14-day activation period on Sept. 21 after 29 of 35 trusted validators voted in support. The amendment could go live on Oct. 5 at 11:18 UTC if support remains at or above the required 80% threshold, according to the live amendment dashboard.

The proposed system is designed for businesses that need to separate day-to-day operations from broader account authority. Stablecoin issuers, custodians and other institutions could give individual systems narrowly defined permissions while keeping their primary control keys offline.

A stablecoin issuer, for example, could authorize an internet-connected compliance system to approve customers who are eligible to hold its token without exposing the keys that control the issuer’s account. A separate operations account could also be permitted to make payments without gaining the ability to alter the main account’s keys or delegate its own authority.

XRPL documentation allows up to 10 permissions to be assigned to each delegate. The primary account retains the ability to modify or revoke those permissions.

The structure is intended to divide responsibilities in a way that resembles conventional financial institutions, where payment processing, compliance and other operational functions are handled by separate teams or systems.

At least 28 validators must continue supporting the amendment during the activation period. If support falls below that level, the 14-day activation countdown resets.

PermissionDelegationV1_1 is a revised version of an earlier proposal. The first version was withdrawn after testing exposed a vulnerability that could potentially force an account to pay fees for transactions it had not authorized.

According to an XRPL vulnerability report, the earlier implementation checked permissions before verifying the transaction signature. In some failed transactions, fees could still be charged before the system determined that the signature was invalid. Repeated high-fee submissions could therefore have reduced the victim account’s XRP balance.

A community tester reported the issue on Sept. 15, 2025, while testing the feature outside the mainnet. Validators were advised to reject the amendment, and the original version never activated.

The revised implementation is included in xrpld 3.3.0, the software used by XRP Ledger nodes. The fix changes the validation process so unauthorized transactions cannot be charged a fee before their signatures are verified.