Ripple CTO Explains Whether XRP Can Be Destroyed
In a series of tweets, David Schwartz, the CTO of blockchain company Ripple who also happens to be the main architect of its proprietary software, answered some questions about creating or destroying XRP.
He explained that validators couldn't simply destroy XRP tokens that are held in the company's escrow wallet.
Alex DovbnyaNo more tokens
According to Schwartz, nobody can create more tokens because of certain "safeties" in the software that prevent more issuances. The total circulating supply of XRP stands at 100 bln tokens with nearly 60 percent of it locked in Ripple's escrow wallet.
There's no mechanism in the software to create XRP and safeties to prevent it from being created by a bug or trick. There's no freeze or lock for other people's XRP since nobody would be entitled to that capability. You can easily lock or destroy your own XRP if you wish.
— David Schwartz (@JoelKatz) March 7, 2020
XRP owners can lock or destroy their tokens if they want to. However, if validators potentially revolt against Ripple and choose to burn its escrow holdings, the server that powers the XRP ledger would simply count them as disagreeing ones, which could potentially halt the network.
Yuri MolchanChanging the rules
Schwartz claimed that changing the rules would require a hard fork. Those network participants who agree with them would have to update their code.
Changing the rules or operating outside the agreed rules is effectively a hard fork. That requires everyone who wants to be on the side of the hark fork with the new rules to change their code. 2/2
— David Schwartz (@JoelKatz) March 8, 2020
Back in September, some members of the XRP community who were dissatisfied with the company's egregious sales decided to create a fork called Ripple One. However, this plan never got off the ground.
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