David Schwartz proposes XRPL reservation scheme to thwart front-running

The proposal introduces a ReservedTxns object, allowing users to pre-book transaction slots up to 16 ledgers in advance. To prevent abuse, Schwartz suggests a fee structure where reservations cost at least double the standard transaction rate, with costs scaling higher if an attacker attempts to flood the network with multiple reservations. Under this model, the network would prioritize these reserved transactions during the consensus process, executing them ahead of standard trades to mitigate slippage and exploitation.

This initiative follows claims from XRPresso that the current pre-validation queue allows actors to observe pending payments, DEX trades, and AMM swaps, creating opportunities for malicious positioning. While XRPL’s canonical ordering was originally designed to be deterministic and resistant to manipulation, the network's expanding DeFi roadmap—including upcoming native lending, programmable escrow, and stable-swap upgrades—has heightened the need for robust ordering protections. The plan is currently a technical framework rather than a formal amendment, serving as a starting point for community review as institutional activity on the ledger continues to grow.