Despite Earlier Clarifications, Rumors of Creating New XRP Tokens on the XRP Ledger Have resurfaced

Following a heated community conversation, David Schwartz has clarified that no code in the XRP Ledger allows the creation of new XRP tokens.

Rumors of creating new XRP tokens on the XRP Ledger have resurfaced despite earlier clarifications. A Bitcoin maxi, Pierre Rochard, brought up the conversation again in a recent X post, sparking a heated debate with XRP community members.

Rochard argued that Ripple could add to the finite 100 billion XRP total supply by minting new tokens. However, this narrative drew the attention of Ripple’s chief technology officer, David Schwartz, who quickly squashed the claim.

“No network rule in the XRPL code permits XRP to be created. In fact, network rules enforced by nodes specifically prohibit this. I’m pretty sure someone specifically pointed this out to you the last time you spread this nonsense,” Schwartz said.

Moreover, the CTO explained that the blockchain has node-enforced rules prohibiting the creation of new XRP. His emphasis points to the sophisticated invariant checking system on the XRP Ledger that determines whether any transaction created new tokens on the network.

“This is easily checked by examining the code. If any transaction creates new tokens, the invariant checker will reject the transaction and no new tokens will be created. No bug, no matter how maliciously crafted, could create new tokens on XRPL,” a dUNL validator, ‘Vet,’ added.

The validator explained that 100 billion XRP was created on the genesis block in 2012, and the network’s coders wiped out any function that would allow an addition to this supply.

Notably, the genesis block was created in 2012, and at that time, 100 billion XRP was already in existence. As stated in the official documentation, the genesis block is the first block in a blockchain. It contains the initial state of the blockchain, including the genesis transactions.

In the case of the XRP Ledger, the genesis block was created by Ripple Labs, the company that developed the blockchain. It contains a snapshot of the XRP Ledger at the time of its launch.

The genesis transactions created the 136 accounts that were used to seed the XRP Ledger with liquidity. These accounts were funded with a total of 99,999,999,999.99632 XRP.

After the genesis block, new blocks are created by validators, who are responsible for verifying and adding transactions to the blockchain. Each block builds upon the previous block, creating a chain of blocks that records the complete history of transactions on the XRP Ledger.

As more transactions are added to the blockchain, the size of the genesis block remains constant. However, the state of the blockchain changes with each transaction. For instance, if a user transfers XRP from one account to another, the balances of both accounts will be updated in the next block.

Despite the claims circulating on social media, no new XRP tokens can be created on the XRP Ledger. Additionally, any attempt to create new tokens will be immediately blocked by the invariant checker.

This point is crucial because it squashes the rumors that new XRP tokens could be created through a bug in the blockchain. However, the invariant checker continuously monitors any function that permits token minting and quickly halts it.

As a result of this sophisticated system, even Ripple cannot mint new tokens on the XRPL. Moreover, the administrators, validators, and users of the XRP Ledger must abide by the blockchain’s rules.