Ripple CTO David Schwartz broke his silence about his long-running XRPL Hub by posting its operational data, network details and performance graphs, turning a low-profile internal node into a public reference point for anyone running an XRPL setup.
Schwartz disclosed that his hub has been running version 2.6.2 for more than a month without a single issue, offered its hostname and port for operators who want to connect, and shared charts showing peer counts, latency profiles, traffic load, and disconnection metrics.
The hub is under capacity, which explains why peer reservations have not been needed, yet Schwartz said he can enable them if demand surges.
The post came out when there was a lot of talk about XRPL programmability again. In the replies, Schwartz disagreed with the idea of adding features only to allow validators to make money from validation. In his opinion, that rationale is weak and does not align with the chain’s design. It is more compelling to let XRP holders stake for revenue, but that alone is not enough to warrant major changes.
What does it all mean for XRP?
The bottom line is that he thinks XRP Ledger’s financial primitives should be used in more situations, not just for quick payouts to a small group.
Schwartz also acknowledged the risk side. Making radical smart-contract additions requires a lot of engineering, creates unpredictable outcomes and changes parts of XRPL that he thinks are essential. Even successful experiments like AMM cannot guarantee usage levels, so new functionality needs proof that it can drive real demand before the ecosystem commits.
With the hub disclosure, it looks like Ripple’s CTO is ready to prioritize transparency in operations while keeping protocol changes on a strict, evidence-driven track.