Are XRP’s Real Stakeholders the Users, Not the Investors?
As debates intensify over Ripple’s real market relevance, Chief Technology Officer David Schwartz has stepped in to remind the crypto community what the XRP Ledger (XRPL) truly represents — and who it’s meant for.
Schwartz described XRPL’s stakeholders not as investors or corporations chasing profit, but as individuals using the system for practical purposes. In his view, the heart of the network beats through people sending payments, transferring tokens, and those running nodes to maintain independence rather than financial gain.
Ripple’s Value Questioned After New Funding Round
The CTO’s remarks came after a report questioned whether Ripple holds value beyond its massive XRP reserves. The discussion reignited following the company’s $500 million fundraising announcement, with some critics claiming that few actually depend on Ripple’s technology.
That critique triggered backlash from the XRP community. Many argued that dismissing Ripple’s ecosystem based on XRPL’s tiny transaction fees — often less than a cent — shows a misunderstanding of how the network operates. For them, low-cost transactions are a feature, not a flaw.
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No Payouts, No Middlemen
Unlike blockchains such as Bitcoin or Ethereum, XRPL doesn’t reward validators with tokens or fees. Participants choose to run nodes voluntarily, often because it supports their own business or technical needs. Schwartz believes this structure keeps the network cleaner and more aligned with decentralization.
In his words, blockchains that pay validators create a system of “middlemen” who profit from others’ activity. By avoiding that, XRPL stays closer to the original purpose of peer-to-peer value transfer — where users transact directly, without financial toll collectors in between.
Redefining Stakeholder Value
Schwartz’s comments highlight a philosophical divide that continues to shape the blockchain industry. Should networks incentivize participants with monetary rewards, or should they rely on intrinsic utility and voluntary contribution?
For Ripple’s CTO, the answer seems clear. The XRP Ledger, he suggests, isn’t built around speculation or rewards. It’s designed for people who actually use it — and for those who believe in a financial system that doesn’t need middlemen to function.
Alexander Stefanov
Reporter at CoinsPress
Alex is Editor-in-Chief of Coinspress and co-founder of Millennial Media Group, with nearly a decade of experience covering financial markets - crypto first, then everything else. It started in 2016 with Bitcoin. Like most people at the time, he didn't fully understand it - so he kept digging. Blockchain, tokenomics, the projects, the cycles. That curiosity never stopped, and eventually pulled him into traditional markets too: equities, commodities, macro. Not because he left crypto behind, but because you can't properly understand one without the other. What drives him is straightforward: he wants to know why something is happening, not just that it's happening. Most market coverage stops at the headline - price up, price down, here's a chart. Alex finds that kind of reporting actively unhelpful. If you walk away from an article without understanding the mechanism behind the move, what did you actually learn? He holds a degree in Tourism from New Bulgarian University - not the most obvious path into financial markets, but markets have a way of pulling in people who are simply too curious to stay out. He has authored over 200 in-depth analyses and more than 10,000 articles across crypto and traditional finance. He still thinks every day in markets teaches him something new. That's probably why he hasn't stopped.
