David Schwartz Ties XRP Value Capture to XRP Ledger Success

Former Ripple CTO David Schwartz said Nov. 9 that he doubts the XRP Ledger can succeed without XRP capturing a meaningful share of its value, renewing questions about how ledger growth might benefit token holders.

“I really do think it's hard to believe we will end up in a world where XRPL is successful but XRP fails to capture a good fraction of that value,” Schwartz wrote.

He did not define what would count as a “good fraction,” give a timetable or quantify the demand that ledger activity could create. He also offered no price target. His post revisited a theme in earlier coverage of Schwartz’s views on XRP value capture.

Peanut Gallery, an account in the discussion, asked whether people might face “another 5 or 10 years of the same misery.” That was the account’s question, not a forecast from Schwartz. Another account, My2Cents, questioned why XRP had not retained more value despite positive announcements about Ripple and the ledger.

The XRP Ledger uses XRP for transaction costs, which are destroyed. Its decentralized exchange can also route trades through XRP when that is cheaper than trading directly. These functions describe how the token is used on the network, but do not quantify the demand they create.

The Nov. 9 discussion left open how much value from ledger activity might accrue to XRP and when holders might see it.