Ripple CTO proposes a bipartisan consensus to make XRPL staking safe

David Schwartz launched a two-pronged staking design for the XRP Ledger to allow for staking rewards without giving Ripple undue influence.

A new proposal from Ripple’s Chief Technology Officer, David Schwartz, could fundamentally reshape the way the XRP Ledger (XRPL) works.

Schwartz unveiled a concept for a two-tier strike system in a public discussion on November 19, which aims to introduce strike rewards while preventing the centralization of power.

A new approach to network security

The conversation started with XRP commentator WrathofKahneman increased ensuring that staking would structurally validate Ripple’s already significant influence on the ledger, as the company owns the largest supply of its own XRP token.

Schwartz responded with an interim solution designed to leave the supervision of deployed funds to individual validators. Furthermore, he viewed cutting corners, punishing misbehaving validators, as a last resort rather than the main enforcement tool.

However, he acknowledged that this approach could lead to validators only accepting stakes from their ‘friends’, creating new risks associated with centralization.

To address that, Schwartz outlined a two-tier model based on a new governance token. Anyone could create such a token, which he emphasized is intended to be “worthless,” with rules to keep its circulation limited so it cannot acquire any economic value. Holders of that token would jointly manage the validator list and replace the Unique Node List (UNL) with a self-governing system.

In the event that holders misbehave or collude, participants can ‘fork by governance’, essentially setting up a new token and directing their servers to it. Schwartz compared this approach to nuclear deterrence, which would be effective mainly because it is too painful to actually use, especially in a network with stablecoins, which cannot be easily forked.

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Reactions to the strike proposal have been mixed. Some, like X user MiT@G0, called deploying Others remembered followers that today’s amendments focus on activation timing, with nodes still choosing which software to run locally.

XRP market pressure

As the technical discussion unfolds,

Recent Glassnode data also shows that only 58.5% of XRP supply is currently making a profit, the lowest level in a year, indicating a top-heavy market where many recent buyers are facing losses.

This price fragility exists despite a major milestone: the launch of the first spot XRP ETFs in the United States. Canary Capital’s XRPC fund started trading last week and has attracted hundreds of millions of dollars, with products from Franklin Templeton, Bitwise and others expected to follow soon.