Anika Begay
In a recent development that has sparked considerable outrage within the XRP Ledger (XRPL) developer community, Ripple is under fire for altering a podcast clip. The edited segment was part of Ripple’s new podcast series titled “Exploring Ripple’s New Stablecoin Ripple USD (RLUSD),” featuring CTO David Schwartz and Ripple President Monica Long discussing the upcoming stablecoin launch and various aspects of the XRP Ledger ecosystem.
The controversy centers around a specific edit to a statement made by Monica Long. In the original podcast, Long noted the momentum of developer engagement on the XRP Ledger, saying, “We put all that effort in and ultimately it’s a bit of a chicken in the egg to get developer momentum on the XRP Ledger, as we’re seeing, there are thousands of developers already building projects, but to really see that flywheel pick up more momentum you need to have high-quality assets, particularly right now it needs reliable and efficient on-ramps and off-ramps, so it’s been primarily in the form of stablecoins.” However, in the edited version posted to YouTube, the line “there are thousands of developers already building projects” was conspicuously absent.
XRP Ledger Developers Are Furious With Ripple
Daniel “No” Keller, CTO of Eminence and XRPL Ambassador, was among the first to express his dismay. In a tweet addressed to Schwartz and Long, Keller expressed his confusion and disappointment: “Hey David Schwartz and Monica Long! Why did you upload a podcast clip and then remove it to reupload a modified version? What happened to the “thousands of developers” part? Ripple and @RippleX have failed the community. Why continue to pretend that everything is fine?”
Keller’s frustration reflects a broader sentiment within the developer community, where developers are increasingly feeling marginalized and unappreciated by Ripple’s business decisions. Keller said: “Why keep pretending that everything is fine? Neither your “stable” nor your lame attempt to push “Defi on XRPL” are going anywhere. […] It’s time to be honest. It’s the community that pushed you through the hard times.
Keller’s statement highlights a growing rift between Ripple and the XRPL developer community. The Eminence CTO added: “We could fix the ecosystem in a heartbeat. But I assume no one on YOUR SIDE is interested in doing that. You could fix the ledger, but your choice was not to. For whatever reason…”
His comments were echoed by the XRPL community, with many feeling let down by Ripple’s commitment to transparency and community engagement. Stephen Chip, co-founder of onthechain.io, criticized Ripple for its lack of focus on supporting its developer ecosystem.
“Many of us have been left in the dark when it comes to grant funding. At this point, we know more people who have been denied grants than who have received them, including me. While it’s great that you’ve started the Japan-Korea Fund, it’s important to follow through on the initial promise of grant support,” Chip noted.
In contrast, community member and dUNL validator Vet (@Vet_X0) defended Ripple and suggested that the edit may have been made due to inside knowledge within Ripple correcting a possible exaggeration: “As for the edited podcast, in my opinion it shows that there are people at Ripple and RippleX who know the ecosystem very well and have fixed it. To me that is the only logical answer as to why someone would edit it, otherwise no one would have done it, only after people spoke out publicly about it.”
At press time, XRP was trading at $0.4558
Featured image created with DALL·E, chart from TradingView.com
