[DigitalToday reporter Jinju Hong] Ripple honorary chief technology officer David Schwartz (데이비드 슈워츠) has stepped back from Ripple’s day-to-day work but suggested he remains connected to the XRP Ledger (XRPL) ecosystem. Comments that he personally looked into a recent XRPL network problem and worked with the development team have led to interpretations that his technical role has not fully ended.

On Aug. 1, blockchain media outlet U.Today reported that Schwartz said in a recent conversation on X, formerly Twitter, "I enjoyed working a few hours like in the old days and getting back on Zoom calls with the team."

Schwartz announced in September last year that he would step away from day-to-day duties as Ripple’s chief technology officer and retire from the management front at the end of the year. At the time, he said he was directly building and operating an XRP Ledger node and continuing new research using it.

The remarks are being taken as another confirmation that his retirement from Ripple does not mean a break with the XRP ecosystem.

The controversy was sparked by an abnormal phenomenon that recently occurred on the XRPL network. After an X user noted that Schwartz monitored the network through his hub and wrote, "He only left Ripple, not XRP," Schwartz replied, "I enjoyed working a few hours like in the old days and getting back on Zoom calls with the team."

Though brief, the reply was interpreted as suggesting he may have taken part in some technical support by communicating directly with the development team during efforts to address the network problem.

Schwartz disclosed on July 31 that an issue occurred on his hub. During negotiations, the hub lost peer connections along with an 'onReadMessage: No message of desired type' error, and then lost its network connection.

XRPL analytics platform xrpl.to also said the same issue occurred across the network. This confirmed it was not a simple individual node failure but an issue that affected the entire XRPL.

XRPL developers later resolved the problem by releasing version 3.2.1. The key change in the new version was a fix for a 'manifest flood' vulnerability identified on July 31. Previously, nodes could store and retransmit without limits manifests delivered from unknown validator keys, but version 3.2.1 added four restrictions to prevent this.

It was not disclosed how directly or to what extent Schwartz took part in the fix. He did say that he worked a few hours like in the old days right after the problem occurred and said he held video meetings with the development team, hinting that he was involved to some extent in the stabilisation process.

As one of the co-designers of the XRP Ledger, Schwartz’s reappearance during a network disruption is likely to ease some community concerns that had viewed his retirement as a complete break with the XRP ecosystem.

The market is evaluating the case as showing that, along with XRPL operational stability, unofficial technical support from a core designer is still continuing. Interest is expected to persist in how Schwartz will be involved in XRP Ledger development and operations going forward.

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