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Former Ripple engineer Matt Hamilton has raised issues over a proposed XRP Ledger (XRPL) change that might considerably increase the quantity of information customers can connect on to transactions, warning that the transfer may put strain on the community’s decentralization.
The proposal would improve the XRPL Memo discipline from its present 1 KB restrict to roughly 1.3 MB, permitting customers to retailer significantly bigger information on the ledger. Supporters have argued that customers ought to have the choice to place content material on-chain, offered they’re prepared to pay the related charges.
In the meantime, former Ripple developer relations director Hamilton strongly criticized the proposal, calling it “a extremely unhealthy thought.”
“As a result of each node has to retailer it without end. Actually unhealthy thought. Greatest use an really storage community like Filecoin and have a approach to hyperlink the 2,” he famous.
His concern facilities on how XRPL is designed to function. In contrast to a devoted file-storage community, the XRP Ledger features primarily as a distributed cost system, which means community members keep copies of the ledger’s transaction historical past.
 
Consequently, permitting considerably bigger information to be embedded in transactions may subsequently trigger the ledger’s information necessities to develop a lot quicker than they do below its present design.
Hamilton warned that such progress may finally improve the {hardware} and storage necessities for validators and different node operators. Greater working prices may make it tougher for smaller or unbiased members to keep up nodes, probably decreasing community range.
Beneath the proposal, the enlargement may help content material reminiscent of photographs, PDFs, music, brief movies, supply code, and compressed archives. Whereas that might broaden what customers can place immediately on XRPL, it additionally raises questions on whether or not a payment-focused blockchain ought to be accountable for completely carrying giant quantities of media information.
Notably, the priority is much less about whether or not XRPL can technically course of bigger transactions and extra concerning the long-term penalties of creating substantial on-chain storage a part of the community’s regular use.
If giant information change into widespread, the ledger’s cumulative measurement may improve considerably over time. That would translate into larger storage calls for for validators and probably elevate the barrier to operating unbiased infrastructure.
Hamilton pointed to decentralized storage networks reminiscent of Filecoin as a extra appropriate possibility for dealing with giant information.
In his view, XRPL may proceed to deal with funds and different ledger exercise whereas specialised decentralized storage methods handle heavier information. This is able to enable customers to attach blockchain transactions with exterior information with out turning the cost ledger itself right into a large-scale information repository.
That mentioned, Hamilton believes holding the ledger comparatively light-weight is essential to sustaining broad participation. The proposed Memo enlargement may provide new performance, however he argues that the extra storage burden warrants cautious consideration earlier than adopting such a change.
