Ripple will not abandon XRP

• Once the XRP Ledger Foundation is established, Ripple will continue to invest in the future of the XRP Ledger, according to Bharath Chari.
  
• The newly formed foundation will not take over the non-circulating XRP supply from Ripple.

Bharath Chari, the spokesman of the newly founded XRP Ledger Foundation (XRPLF), which was established on September 24, denied the rumor in an interview with Forbes that Ripple will not invest in the development of the XRP Ledger in the future. The rumor came up within the XRP community right after the foundation, as the newly formed foundation is supposed to drive the growth, innovation as well as the development of the XRP Ledger and the community.

These main tasks have created confusion within the community because they overlap with those of Ripple to some extent. However, Chari rejected speculation that the XRP Ledger Foundation would lead the future development of XRPL while Ripple would not invest as heavily in the future of XRPL. According to the XRPLF spokesperson, Ripple will continue to play a key role in the development:

We don’t see this as being the case at all, even though this question is better answered by Ripple. As in the case of many open-source projects, stakeholder companies invest time and resources in helping develop it. The XRPLF sees Ripple in a continued role as a key developer on both the technical and business aspects of the XRPL. Furthermore, the XRPLF is only an entity that promises to act in the best interests of the XRPL. There is no question of controlling an open, decentralized ecosystem like the XRPL.

Regarding the non-circulating supply of XRP under Ripple’s control, the Forbes correspondent asked if Ripple will transfer a large portion of the non-circulating supply to the XRPLF to make the XRP Ledger more decentralized. Chari replied:

The non-circulating supply isn’t of any concern to the XRPLF. We are purely focused on the health and forward direction of the XRPL. As answered earlier, and also indicated in some other statements by Ripple, they are committed to the greater good of the XRPL, including devoting resources to develop on it.

Chari also added that the XRPLF does not have any agreement with Ripple to allocate a share of the non-circulating XRP delivery, and explained that the foundation is only focusing on the original roadmap. There is also no agreement with Ripple to take over the software repository of the XRP Ledger. However, as the XRP Ledger Foundation builds, it will “work [their]way through merge access and then finally towards repository and packaging,” as Chari stated.

In addition, the XRPLF will take another step forward in decentralization by overtaking Unique Node List (UNL) from Ripple. While the San Francisco-based company has sought to decentralize the XRP Ledger by including “non-Ripple validators” in the recommended UNL, critics have repeatedly stated that as long as the list is still published by Ripple, they will ultimately still have full control of the network.

In this regard, Chari promised that the new Unique Node List will have transparent selection and performance criteria. He also rejected risks associated with the change, such as forking the network:

Since one of our core values is to act in the best interest of the XRPL, we would of course work closely with other list publishers to ensure that no fork risk occurs. Being open, every node on the XRPL is free to choose the validators they trust, including manually.