A new controversy over the decentralization of XRP Ledger and the cryptocurrency that powers it, XRP, has emerged and continued over the past two days. Arguments for the doubters' theses were presented by Ripple's former Director of Development Matt Hamilton and the company's current CTO David Schwartz. Main points

Responding to the thesis that being a zero revenue generating blockchain, XRPL cannot offer validators earnings, which discourages independents from participating in the network. The lack of earnings generates a lack of independent validators, which poses the threat of XRPL being taken over by Ripple and affiliates, said a doubting user.

Hamilton agreed that the revenue of the blockchain is zero, which is what makes it decentralized as the interests of validators and users are aligned. As for taking over the network via subordinate validators, the company's former chief developer stated that Ripple only controls its list of unique nodes (UNLs). If Ripple tried to "take over" other validators, however, the other nodes would simply exclude them from their UNLs.

(By Gamza Khanzadaev)