According to CryptoPotato, Ripple’s Chief Technology Officer, David Schwartz, will be attending the Permissionless conference later in October in Salt Lake City. Schwartz's announcement of his participation sparked a discussion about the nature of permissioned, semi-permissioned, or trusted networks and their categorization. A digital asset researcher, known by the X username Anders, questioned Schwartz on his thoughts about the XRP Ledger (XRPL) being described as “permissioned,” “semi-permissioned,” or “trusted” in various documents from different organizations.
In response, Schwartz dismissed these arguments as “nonsense.” He emphasized that while many aspects of blockchains are important, the specific method they use to solve the double-spend problem is largely irrelevant. Schwartz reiterated his stance, questioning the impact of such categorizations on the functionality of the blockchain.
The debate often centers on the structure of a network's consensus algorithm to determine its level of centralization. Ripple employs the XRP Ledger Consensus Protocol, which allows all users to agree on the latest state and the order of transactions without needing a central operator or a single point of failure. The protocol ensures that all valid transactions are processed, and if too many participants are unreachable or misbehaving, the network fails to make progress rather than diverging or confirming invalid transactions.
