XRP Decentralization

While Ripple is moving towards greater decentralization of the XRP ledger, we hope that the server operators and members of the XRP Ledger community are aware of some future changes to ensure the reliability and stability of the network as we go along. that he evolves. a distributed architecture with fully decentralized validators.

Funds
The XRP Ledger (formerly known as Ripple Consensus Ledger) was created in 2012 as a trusted alternative to the work testing mechanism created by Bitcoin. So far, most of this trust has been based on proprietary validators and controlled by Ripple, the lead developer of XRP Ledger.

Ripple deliberately chose to be the most reliable network validation operator during the early stages of developing the XRP ledger. This decision implied concessions to prioritize security and scalability prior to decentralization.

Since its creation, XRP Ledger has closed more than 33 million books of account, processed more than 600 million transactions for a transaction volume of more than 15 billion dollars, without major problems or bifurcations on the network.

Currently, the XRP ledger can scale natively up to 1,500 transactions per second. With payment channels, XRP can theoretically scale to tens of thousands of transactions per second, comparable in performance to VISA.

With the security, stability, and performance of the fully tested Ledger XRP, Ripple believes the time has come to take another critical step in decentralization, while continuing to improve all aspects of the XRP Ledger software.

Strategy
To meet the growing needs of customers and further increase the resilience and stability of the XRP ledger, Residual Ripple is an excellent position to fully implement its decentralization strategy, which has been an ongoing process since 2012.

The first phase includes the diversification of validators by identity, location, hardware and software, with the aim of further mitigating the risk of a single point of failure. At the time of the announcement, 25 validating nodes were run with 5 trusted validators, owned and managed by Ripple. Currently, more than 70 validator nodes are running globally. During this phase, Ripple will add 16 more trusted validators, in preparation for phase two.

During the second phase, for both of the most reliable, reliable, stable, secure and proven validators added to the list of recommended trusted nodes, a validator node currently controlled by Ripple, until no entity works with most will be deleted Trusted nodes recommended in the XRP ledger.

The validation operators of this recommended list of trusted nodes believe in the long-term vision of XRP and wish to participate in the consensus process, which involves voting on proposed changes, modification fees, and validating transactions.

change
Before Ripple can proceed to Phase Two, some changes must be made to ensure a safe transition.

With the next version 0.81.0, Ripple will move from its recommended validation list to a new hosted site. This involves changing the default wavy configuration file. The [validators] with its static list of trusted validators will be replaced by fields [validator_list_keys] and [validator_list_sites] containing the key you are using Ripple to sign your recently recommended list of validators, as well as the URL where you can find the list dynamic (Editor's note: an earlier version of this article incorrectly indicated that the transition would be made in version 0.80.0).

These changes will add new validators safely to the recommended validation list for phase two without requiring each corrugated operator to manually update its configuration with each new addition.

It is important to keep in mind that for operators who already use the list of recommended validators, no additional trust in Ripple is required during Phase 1, despite the significant increase in validators under Ripple's operational control . The list of validators currently recommended by Ripple contains 5 validators operated by Ripple, and at the end of phase 1, the list will contain 16 validators of this type.

During phases 1 and 2, Ripple strongly recommends that operators use only the list of validators provided by default Ripple. According to this recommendation, the next scheduled wave version, version 0.81.0, will be sent with a default configuration file using this default list.

During Phase 2, Ripple will begin to dismantle a validator under its operational control for each of the two third-party validators that demonstrate a strong reputation for stability, security, and reliability. Ripple will also work with other entities to establish independent vendors of validator lists.