Ripple's CTO Discusses XRP Ledger Security and Potential Attacks

According to U.Today, Ripple's Chief Technology Officer, David Schwartz, recently spoke on the security of the XRP Ledger on The Defiant podcast. Schwartz demonstrated that the only method to attack the XRP Ledger was to interrupt the global sequencing of transactions, causing the entire network to halt. He also discussed the operation of the Proof-of-Association (PoA), the XRP Ledger's unique consensus process that arranges all transactions to avoid double-spending. The initial transaction is regarded valid, while all future transactions are ruled invalid.

Schwartz, the creator of the XRP Ledger, indicated that the only feasible assault on the ledger would be to stop it completely. However, he says there is no need to halt XRP because it is difficult to see how it can be commercialized. He also stated that the XRP Ledger has only seen generic attacks thus far, with no attempts at a sophisticated level of attack. Despite this, Schwartz accepted the possibility that someone will start an XRP short and launch a major attack to push the price down. However, he reminded XRP investors that there are theoretical and practical reasons not to be very concerned about such an assault.

During the same talk, Schwartz also covered XRP distribution, use cases, smart contracts, and Ripple's current legal struggle with the Securities and Exchange Commission.