TLDR:
- In an hour-long incident on Tuesday, February 5, 2025, the XRP Ledger experienced a block production halt at ledger height 93927173 but managed to recover without any asset or transaction loss.
- David Schwartz, Ripple's CTO, attributes the obstruction to a consensus validation issue which led to the network drifting apart.
- Though all 35 network validators were proposing during the incident, the system failed to generate validations, entering a 'silent network' mode.
- The XRP Ledger has recently dealt with various technical setbacks, including a node crash in November 2024 and full history node failures back in September 2024.
- During the disruption, XRP's value tumbled by 8.3%, reaching $2.52, which mirrored the broader trends in the cryptocurrency marketplace.
As one of the oldest blockchain networks, the XRP Ledger faced an unexpected halt in block creation for around an hour on Tuesday, February 5, 2025. This rare incident at ledger height 93927173 interrupted the network momentarily before it spontaneously resumed.
Ripple CTO David Schwartz provided insight into the halt on the social media platform X. Despite the consensus mechanism's functionality, the absence of published validations led to network disarray.
✅ XRP Ledger is Back Online
Operations on the XRP Ledger have fully resumed after the delay, and transactions proceed as usual.
We are keeping an eye on the developments and will offer a comprehensive update upon gathering more details.
— Xaman® Wallet 🪝 (@XamanWallet) February 4, 2025
The consensus model of the XRP Ledger utilizes the Unique Node List (UNL), which is vital for maintaining network integrity. During the episode, all 35 nodes were actively proposing, confirmed by Eminence CTO Daniel Keller.
Schwartz described the network's state as entering a 'silent network' mode, where validators refrained from sending validations to prevent the approval of potentially unstable ledgers.
Schwartz assured that throughout the disruption, no assets were endangered. The network detected operational issues and consequently did not trust any ledgers during the hour-long halt.
In response to the situation, the XRP community acted quickly. Xaman Wallet, a provider within the XRP ecosystem, promptly informed users about the situation and announced the resumption of regular operations.
This event adds to the recent technical obstacles encountered by the XRP Ledger. November 2024 saw a node crash, while in September 2024 the system underwent full history node failures necessitating emergency patches.
The structure of the XRP Ledger's validator framework has undergone changes in the past two years. In January 2023, the XRPL Foundation enforced a 'one entity, one validator' policy, reducing Ripple's influence on the UNL by removing one of its validators.
In March 2023, the network expanded with additional community-run validators, bringing the total to 36. Subsequently, the removal of an inactive validator from the University of Korea adjusted the count back to 35.
The price of XRP Following the network upset, XRP's market reacted with a decline of 8.3% down to $2.52, a change consistent with broader market dynamics at that time.
Remarkably, the network self-corrected with minimal human intervention. Despite one operator's attempt to reset consensus, the system autonomously restored functionality.
No transactions were lost or compromised during the pause. Normal processing resumed seamlessly once the network was up and running again.
Inherent safety provisions within the XRP Ledger are designed to prevent acceptance of incorrect ledger states. These mechanisms caused validators to halt validations when network deficiencies were noticed.
Recently, the XRP Ledger implemented changes to reserve requirements. As of December 2024, the base reserve fee was lowered from 10 XRP to 1 XRP, easing the barrier to account setup given the current price levels.
Technical teams vigilantly observe the network for any lingering impacts from the incident. Normal operations persist as an investigation into the validation publication glitch continues.
