Basri Caneri 
Ripple’s blockchain network XRP Ledger (XRPL) is back up and running after a network outage lasting more than 1 hour on February 4th. Ripple’s chief technology officer David Schwartz said they are investigating the cause of the incident.
The XRPL network restarted at 10:58 UTC, after the blocking height stopped at 93.927.174 for 64 minutes. Schwartz explained that the reconciliation process is ongoing on the network, but the verification processes are not published, which has thrown the network out of sync.
Verifiers Forced to Intervene
Schwartz said that verifier operators took manual intervention to get the network back up and running, and that the network was synchronizedby“selecting a valid starting point“. However, he said the exact cause of the problem has not yet been determined and further investigation will be conducted.
RippleX said that user funds were safe during the incident and there were no losses. According to XRPSCAN data, XRPL processes around 2 million transactions daily and it is estimated that around 88,000 transactions were delayed due to this outage.
Decentralization Debates Reignited
The network halt has sparked new discussions about Ripple’s centralization structure. Daniel Keller, CTO of XRPL node operator Eminence, criticized XRPL’s centralized structure, saying , “All 35 nodes have started verifying transactions again.”
While rival blockchains, especially Ethereum, have become increasingly decentralized with more than 1 million active validators, XRPL’s having fewer nodes has raised criticism.
XRP Price Volatility and Ripple’s US Reserve Move
During the blackout, the price of XRP fell as low as $2.45, but then rose 3.2% to $2.53. XRP has gained 396% since Donald Trump won the US election, making it one of the best performing assets in the sector.
This comes as Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse continues his efforts to have XRP added to the US strategic reserve assets. David Sacks, the crypto advisor in the Trump administration, is said to be looking into the matter.
XRP Ledger’s recent outage continues to raise questions about how Ripple will deal with criticism over network stability and centralization.
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