The XRP Ledger (XRPL) experienced a temporary outage on February 4th. For about an hour, the network froze, halting transactions.
The Outage
The freeze started at block height 93927174 and lasted 64 minutes. No new transactions were processed during this time. This naturally caused concern among XRP users.
Ripple’s Response
Ripple’s CTO, David Schwartz (also known as “JoelKatz”), quickly addressed the situation on X (formerly Twitter). He explained that while the consensus mechanism seemed to be running, validations weren’t being published, causing the network to become fragmented.
Validator operators manually restarted the system from a point where everyone agreed on the last valid transaction. Schwartz emphasized that this was a preliminary explanation and the exact cause was still under investigation.
Initially, it seemed like several validators had intervened. However, later updates suggested that only one validator may have taken manual action, leaving open the possibility that the network self-corrected. RippleX, Ripple’s developer team, also reassured users that their funds remained safe.
What it Means
While the XRP Ledger is generally known for its speed and reliability, this incident highlights the challenges inherent in any distributed ledger system. The behavior of validators and the consensus mechanism are key to maintaining network stability. This wasn’t the first time the XRPL has faced technical issues; there were similar problems in November and September of 2024.
At the time of writing, XRP was trading at $2.4979.
