According to U.Today, Anodos Finance has been included in the XRP Ledger Foundation's unique node list (UNL), as announced on Tuesday. The UNL consists of 35 validators deemed as trusted network participants. Anodos Finance's addition came after the removal of Digifin.uk, at the latter's request. The project expressed its pride and excitement at being part of the UNL, acknowledging its role in maintaining the integrity and stability of the XRP Ledger.
To be included in the XRP Ledger Foundation's UNL, a validator must be 'highly available' with production-grade infrastructure. It should also be an active participant in the amendment voting process. Moreover, the entity behind the validator candidate must be clearly identified. The XRP Foundation, an independent non-profit entity, is one of the trusted publishers of UNLs.
The XRP Ledger Foundation began publishing its list of recommended nodes three years ago. Before this, Ripple (the XRP Foundation) and Ripple-funded web monetization platform Coil were the only notable entities with their own UNLs. Coil, founded by former Ripple CTO Stefan Thomas, has since gone bankrupt. Unlike other blockchain networks like Bitcoin and Ethereum, the XRP Ledger relies on a predefined list of trusted nodes for maintaining consensus.
Ripple has often faced criticism due to concerns about centralization, as it used to provide a default curated list of nodes. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission even cited Ripple's control over validating transaction nodes during its ongoing legal battle with the company.