Topology Analysis of the XRP Network

05/02/2022

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by   Vytautas Tumas, et al.

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XRP is one of the oldest, well-established cryptocurrencies. Despite the popularity of XRP, little is known about its underlying peer-to-peer network. The structural properties of a network impact its efficiency, security and robustness. We aim to close the knowledge gap by providing a detailed analysis of the XRP overlay network. In this paper we examine the graph-theoretic properties of the XRP Network topology and its temporal characteristics. We crawl the XRP Network over two months and collect 1,300 unique network snapshots. We uncover a small group of nodes that act as a networking backbone. In addition, we observe a high network churn, with a third of the nodes changing every five days. Our findings have strong implications for the resilience and safety of the XRP Ledger.