Brief
- XRP LEDGER obtained a security score of 41 out of 100 – the lowest among 15 major blockchains – in the Kaiko blockchain ecosystem report published in August.
- A leader of Ripplex rejected the low note, pointing to the security point of the solid security record of XRP Ledger.
- The XRP LEDGER software development kit was struck by an attack on the supply chain in April, but the developers say that the chain code base has not been affected.
The developers of XRP LEDGER repel against the last security note of the network in a recent ranking of more than a dozen blockchains of the Kaiko research company, relying a long-standing debate on the decentralization of the cryptocurrency platform and global reliability.
The classification of the Kaiko blockchain ecosystem, published on August 13, awarded the XRP book a 41 out of 100 security score, the lowest among the 15 blockchains included in the report. Ethereum exceeded the classification with a note of 83 out of 100, closely followed by Ethereum Layer-2 Network Arbitrum and the layer of layer 1 Solana, the show of the results of Kaiko.
However, the low score of XRP Ledger is misleading, the engineering manager of Ripplex Ayo Akinyele said in the comments of Decipherquoting the solid network safety file.
“XRPL has one of the most solid safety track records in the blockchain – 13 years of continuous operating without a single incident with an impact on the central network,” said Akinyele.
Kaiko researchers admitted that the classification was partly influenced by an April incident during which the official XRP LEDGER software development kit was struck by a supply chain attack and infected with a potential “stolen door” of the crypto, such as the Aikido security company.
The XRP Ledger Foundation replaced the compromised software downloads and said that the network code base itself has never been affected. Asked about the incident, a representative of Ripple Labs again stressed that he did not represent a vulnerability of the network.
“Some of the perceptions can result from a lack of understanding of the nature of the incident,” said the representative, adding that it was “not a vulnerability in XRPL himself, but a supply chain problem in an NPM (a JavaScript library).”
“Ripple, the XRPL Foundation, the validators and the independent developers have all communicated openly,” they added, “publications to publications”.
Beyond considering this incident, Kaiko researchers have also used data accessible to the public on operational resilience, decentralization of validators, audit frequency and past incidents to offer its security scores.
XRP Ledger received low security notes because it showed signs of more centralization than other leading blockchains, said a Kaiko representative DecipherPointing towards the relatively low number of nodes of the protocol and the Nakamoto coefficient – two key measures of decentralization in the cryptographic world. His score also suffered due to the discovery of malware in cryptography in an official XRP book nodes package for developers in April.
Some web3 experts have questioned the usefulness of third -party security audits, indicating an increase in payment certifications and technical limits of many services. The disagreement on the XRP security score highlights a long -standing debate on the reliability of the protocol.
For years, some web3 users have raised concerns about its level of decentralization, a quality which is often considered as a security indicator in the cryptographic community. The network has a relatively low number of validators – it has less than 200 nodes of validators executed on maint, while Solana has more than 1,000 validators, according to online data.
The DEFI platform also has a relatively low Nakamoto coefficient, a decentralization measure – named after the Pseudyian creator of Bitcoin Satoshi Nakamoto – which has the minimum number of independent entities necessary to disturb or exceed a blockchain.
But XRP LEDGER’s security measures go far beyond its decentralization, according to Akinyele.
“The conception of XRPL consensus is intrinsically resilient against the attack,” said Akinyele. “Validators have no incitement to end or censor.”
XRP Ledger uses its lists of unique nodes to secure its network, added the executive. According to this system, each validator keeps a list of network participants deemed trustworthy, keeping bad players at a distance.
“If a (malicious) behavior has been tempted, the community could immediately reject the criminal validator and adapt the network to prevent it,” he added.
Akinyele has also highlighted several security approvals received by XRP Ledger in the past two years, including a triple A “Skynet” score from Certik and audits of web 3 Halborn and Fyeo.
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