Ripple Developer Proposes Changes to XRPL Foundation, Sparks Controversy
Date: 2024-01-29 Author: Dima Zakharov Categories: BLOCKCHAIN
Proposal for Structural Changes
In a bold move, David Fuelling, the software development director at RippleX, is advocating for significant changes in the governance structure of the XRP Ledger Foundation. His proposal outlines a plan to establish a community-led governance system.
The XRPL Foundation is a nonprofit organization responsible for supporting the development of the XRPL ecosystem. However, Fuelling believes that there is a lack of clarity regarding the rights and responsibilities of members, prompting the need for well-defined rules.
Fuelling's proposal emphasizes the need to improve membership structure, citing ambiguity surrounding membership rights and board elections. As a result, he aims to introduce a new method of elections.
Key objectives of the proposal include increasing the representation of XRPL ecosystem members in the XRPLF, ensuring governance transparency, and promoting broader stakeholder involvement.
Proposed Membership and Board Changes
The proposed changes introduce three membership classes: individual members, corporate members, and sustaining members. Each class has distinct criteria for selection and membership rights, with annual dues varying accordingly.
Notably, individual members would be required to pay an annual fee of 75 XRP. Small companies with 1 to 10 employees may pay 500 XRP per year, while larger corporations could pay significantly more, such as 500,000 XRP. Sustaining members would contribute the highest amount, around 1,000,000 XRP.
To attract the interest of individual, corporate, and sustaining members, Fuelling suggests diversifying the Board of Directors. The board would consist of at least three community directors, one corporate director, and one support director.
The proposal also outlines the terms of office for directors: community directors are elected for a two-year term, corporate directors for one year, and support directors are appointed by respective supporting members with no term limit.
Community's Response to XRPL Changes
In response to Fuelling's proposal, David Schwartz, Ripple's Chief Technology Officer, thanked Fuelling for presenting the proposal to the community. Schwartz stated that Fuelling had privately shared the proposal with him and the XRPLF before its public release.
Schwartz mentioned that XRPLF received the proposal positively but emphasized that Fuelling did not require permission to make the proposal. He underlined that the community is not obliged to accept the proposal without modifications, as it is open to discussion.
Ripple Takeover Speculations
However, some individuals have not received the proposal well, suggesting that it could be an attempt to take over Ripple. Onledger.net raised doubts about certain aspects of the proposal, particularly regarding the Sustaining Member, which they believe could only be Ripple due to its ability to pay a 1 million XRP fee.
The fact that a Sustaining Member has sufficient authority to appoint a supporting director to the board for an unlimited period has raised concerns that this proposal might be an effort by Ripple to occupy that position. However, these are only speculations.
Lack of Incentives for XRPL Validators
Simultaneously, some validators, like Alloy Networks, have decided to exit the ecosystem, as first noted by XRP Crypto Eri. She emphasized Alloy Networks' significance to the ecosystem as one of the three companies providing peer servers.
Alloy Networks refuted claims that their departure was impulsive and driven by anger, stressing that if that were the case, they would have immediately shut down their Zaphod infrastructure rather than gradually winding it down.
In further remarks, the team called on commercial entities using the XRPL Ledger to contribute to the infrastructure. This comment sparked speculation that the absence of incentives for infrastructure providers in XRPL is a contributing factor to the departures.
Unlike other blockchains, XRPL lacks direct incentives for validators and infrastructure providers.
Is "Lack of Incentive" the Best Motivation?
On her YouTube channel, Eri expressed her disagreement with the idea that "lack of incentive is the best incentive," suggesting that those providing infrastructure should do so out of love for the network, not solely for financial gain. She concurred with Alloy Networks' proposal that businesses using XRPL should support the infrastructure.
In response to Eri, another RippleX developer, Mayuka Vadari, praised this aspect of Fuelling's proposal. She believed it would attract funding from various sources, with some coming from businesses using XRPL, and that part of the funding could go towards infrastructure support.
Reacting to the emerging issue, WrathofKahneman, another prominent XRP community figure, speculated that these problems were business-related rather than network-related. However, he acknowledged lacking experience in the business sphere.
