Ripple’s CTO Emeritus, David Schwartz, gave a rare look at… How can the XRP Ledger Respond if you are pressured by a state-level actor.
The discussion began with a question about whether an authoritarian regime could use or attack the XRP Ledger by targeting its verification network. Schwartz did not completely rule out the risk, and according to him, if the squeeze becomes serious enough, the XRP Ledger It can be reorganized About a more flexible validator architecture.
Nationwide attacks may only temporarily disrupt XRPL
The XRP Ledger has been running without significant interruption across more than 70 million locked ledgers, but that record of reliability may soon be tested in ways its creators never expected, one of which may be authoritarian regimes and state-level interference.
Schwartz Admit it The threat to blockchain networks from government actors is real. State-level actors can cause temporary disruptions to blockchains, including the XRP Ledger, but long-term damage is a completely different matter, he said. Responses made For a question on Social media platform
However, according to Ripple’s CTO Emeritus, there is long-term control from external forces It will be much more difficult If the broader XRPL community remains active enough to respond. Ripple’s validators represent less than 20% of the total network, meaning that a focused attack on Ripple’s infrastructure would leave the validator intact.
the The survival of the XRPL network In this type of scenario, it will depend less on whether a validator is attacked, and more on whether the network is able to continue to replace compromised or stressed operators. An attack will only become truly serious if a hostile actor can make people too afraid to run auditors at all.
How will the reorganization of the XRP ledger affect the network?
Schwartz also described a potential long-term change to the XRPL consensus structure in the event of an attack by an authoritarian regime. His example was a two-layer consensus algorithm, where the inner layer would handle normal network activity, and the outer layer would only be triggered when the network needed to change the inner layer’s unique node list (UNL).
Internal validators will keep the XRP Ledger running day in and day out. If these validators are attacked or compromised, the impact will be minimal, as they will be easily replaced. External validators will play a lighter, less frequent role, stepping in primarily when changes to the validation toolkit need to be made.
External auditors will also be more difficult to target because they will not need to constantly work in the same visual way. They can remain lightweight, only appear when needed, and operate through anonymization services such as Tor or I2P.
Featured image from Adobe Stock, chart from Tradingview.com
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