User Needs Key in Decentralization

• Ripple CTO David Schwartz advises users to focus on blockchain utility over decentralization.
• Schwartz clarifies XRP has no issuer & XRP Ledger (XRPL) differs from other blockchains.
• Users should consider their network needs, not just engage in decentralization status debates.

Events of the past week including the CETUS DEX hack on the SUI blockchain has broadened industry discussions beyond the incident itself, reigniting debate on the core nature of decentralization in the blockchain space. 

Against this backdrop, Ripple’s CTO, David Schwartz, seized the opportunity to explain why blockchain users should care less about a network’s decentralization status but concentrate on their expectations from the networks.

In his latest post on X, Schwartz tackled this subject while responding to a blockchain user questioning XRP’s decentralization status. The user asked why Brad Garlinghouse is the face of XRP with Ripple as its issuer, given that XRP is meant to be decentralized; a situation not seen in the case of of Bitcoin (BTC).

Schwartz on XRP Decentralization: Clarifying Misconceptions About XRPL

Schwartz responded by clarifying that Garlinghouse is only the CEO of Ripple, a company, while XRP itself has no issuer. According to the Ripple CTO, all the XRP tokens that will ever exist emerged alongside the ledger, and unlike most other blockchains, XRPL has no rivalrous features.

The CTO explained the XRP ledger’s limits, noting that it couldn’t have done the initial distribution beyond allowing interested persons or groups to take as much XRP as they wanted. As for understanding the XRPL decentralization status, Schwartz asked users to think about their underlying reasons for asking whether the network is decentralized or not.

Related: Ripple CTO David Schwartz on XRPL: KYC Tussle and Decentralization

Schwartz stressed that users should focus on what they want to achieve from the network and whether being fully decentralized would affect their expected outcomes, instead of engaging in mob arguments over a blockchain network’s status. 

Related: Ripple Doesn’t Hinge on XRPL’s Decentralization, Says Bill Morgan

The Ripple executive believes that having such a perspective would allow blockchain users to think usefully about how decentralized a solution could be without getting bogged down in definitions.
Meanwhile, Schwartz addressed another user who classified XRP as a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) network alongside other blockchain solutions like ETH, SOL, and ADA. He replied, “XRP is not PoS.”