Ripple announced it would release two white papers to be peer-reviewed. One would describe the XRP consensus algorithm, the other would outline how to upgrade the diversity of connections at each node

Ripple, the San-Francisco-based startup, announced on Wednesday that it would release two white papers to be peer-reviewed. One would describe the XRP consensus algorithm in a more formal way while the other would outline how to upgrade the diversity of connections at each node. These are the nodes that users of the software relay and verify transactions on this network: Ripple Paper Promises New Support For Ripple XRP - Major Upgrades for the Third Most Valuable Crypto Coin

Ripple CTO Stefan Thomas stressed that release of the papers opened up possibilities of further building a network effect around this technology:

This is the first time we’re releasing peer-reviewed academic papers. Obviously, it opens the door for future research. After this, I expect you’ll hear much more about us interacting with academia.

The first paper builds on the paper released in 2014. This paper provides a formal mathematical proof that what is supposed to occur on the network will actually occur. It states that the network will not fork into two competing networks and that the network will never be stuck while processing transactions.

The second paper wants to improve on previous XRP plans. The paper introduces an algorithm that will support a richer array of validators. According to the paper, XRP can be thought of as some kind of voting system. Each node that stores that Ripple transaction history will get a vote on what will happen next.