Ripple’s XRP Ledger: A Closer Look at the Recent Network Disruption
Ripple’s XRP Ledger has successfully recovered from a network halt that lasted for over an hour, causing delays in transaction validations. This issue, which took place on February 4, was confirmed by Ripple’s Chief Technology Officer, David Schwartz. According to the official XRPL explorer page, the network froze at block height 93927174 for 64 minutes before being rebooted at 10:58 am UTC.
The Network Disruption: What Went Wrong?
Schwartz explained that while consensus appeared to be running smoothly, validations were not being published, leading to a drift in the network. He elaborated in a February 4 X post, stating, “It looked like consensus was running but validations were not being published, causing the network to drift apart.”
To address this issue, validator operators had to manually intervene and “choose a sane starting point” to establish enough consensus and bring the network back to a coordinated ledger stream. Schwartz mentioned that this was an initial observation and Ripple is still investigating the root cause of the disruption.
Ripple’s Response: Validator Actions and Safety of Customer Funds
Despite the technical hiccup, Ripple emphasized that customer funds remained safe throughout the incident. RippleX’s X account confirmed this, noting that around 2 million transactions are processed daily, with anywhere between 30,000 and 60,000 unique senders.
Although the halt affected approximately 88,000 transactions, the network has now stabilized, and XRP’s price also showed signs of recovery. At the time of the disruption, XRP hit a 24-hour low of $2.45, but it has since rebounded by 3.2%, reaching $2.53 according to CoinGecko data.
Concerns About Centralization: A Wider Debate
The network halt reignited concerns about Ripple’s centralized setup. Daniel Keller, CTO of XRPL node operator Eminence, pointed out that “all 35 nodes” had resumed validating transactions, which raised questions about the network’s decentralization. This has been a common criticism of XRP Ledger, especially when compared to blockchain competitors like Ethereum, which boasts more than 1 million daily active validators securing the network.
XRP’s Strong Performance Amidst Challenges
Despite the network issue, XRP has been performing well overall. Since Donald Trump’s U.S. election victory, XRP has seen a remarkable 396% increase in value, as of November 5. At the time of the network halt, XRP was trading at $2.45 but has since recovered.
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