Ripple CTO Responds to Concerns Raised about XRPL Memos for Banks and Governments

Ripple CTO David Schwartz reacts as an XRP community figure raises concerns about the potential misuse of memos on the XRPL, especially for banks and governments.

In a thought-provoking Twitter conversation, Mr. Intuitive, a media personality, engaged in a dialogue with David Schwartz, the CTO of Ripple, expressing concerns about the use of memos in the XRP Ledger (XRPL) for transactions potentially involving banks and government institutions.

In his initial tweet, Mr. Intuitive suggested that if banks and government institutions were to extensively use the XRPL, the current feature that allows anyone to add a memo to a transaction involving another entity could pose issues. This remark came in response to a recent enigmatic memo found in one of Ripple’s escrow transactions.

Santiago, wouldn't you assume this has to be changed? If this is going to be used by Gov't and Banks, how can just anyone add memos to TXs?

— Mr. Intuitive ?‍☠️ Trumors Only. (@BlackberryXRP) August 1, 2023

Mr. Intuitive’s concern centered around the possibility of malicious actors attaching harmful or false memos to transactions, which could, in turn, associate the targeted banks or governments with inappropriate content.

Ripple CTO Chimes in

In response, David Schwartz clarified that the XRPL operates without knowing the entities involved in transactions, emphasizing that it does not distinguish between banks, governments, or other entities. He noted that anyone, regardless of their affiliation or role, can attach memos to their transactions.

The XRP Ledger has no idea who is a government or who is a bank. Anyone can attach memos to their transactions. And anyone can "clean up" a ledger entry that needs it. One of Ripple's escrows had expired and this person was the first to clean it up.

— David "JoelKatz" Schwartz (@JoelKatz) August 1, 2023

He further noted that, given the appropriate conditions, anyone can clean up a ledger entry. Citing the recent event, Schwartz stated that one of Ripple’s escrows had expired, and a user from the XRP community was the first to clean it up. 

Despite Schwartz’s explanation, Mr. Intuitive remained steadfast in proving his point. He reiterated that while the ledger does not need to know the entities involved, the potential misuse of memos by any party could still cause unintended issues if the XRPL were to gain widespread adoption among banks and government institutions.

However, In response to Mr. Intuitive’s concerns, David Schwartz humorously associated his tweet with the “egregious claim” that “Real Genius” was Val Kilmer’s best movie. This playful response illustrates that certain memos may not necessarily cause significant concerns.

Mr. Intuitive, with a clear intent to underscore the gravity of the matter, emphasized that while lighthearted statements about movie preferences might not raise concerns, associating his tweet with racism would indeed be worrisome to him.

Strange Memo Stuns XRP Community

The conversation stemmed from a recent incident where a strange memo was attached to a Ripple escrow execution involving 400 million XRP. The mysterious memo raised curiosity within the XRP community due to its nature and choice of words.

While the community speculated about the memo’s origin, it was revealed that the individual behind the address responsible for initiating the escrow transaction had been involved in similar messages since 2019. 

The Crypto Basic confirmed that anyone can execute an EscrowFinish transaction for Ripple, and it doesn’t necessarily have to be a Ripple employee.