Can garbage trading mess up blockchains? They are eyeing XRP

Developers are looking for a solution to prevent the XRP blockchain from getting stuck in junk trade.

An anonymous developer created an open source tool that anyone can upload to any size of the XRP blockchain. The tool utilizes the unique memo field (also called the target tag) of the XRP transaction, which is designed to help identify transactions.

Although the design of the memo field is said to be "unbreakable, unchangeable, and has unlimited file storage space," it does slow down the network and push up transaction costs. The developer said that a solution has been developed.

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XRP developer Wietse Wind said it ran a full node on the XRP ledger.

The problem is that the blockchain cannot be used to store an infinite amount of data. To ensure the security of the blockchain, many people need to keep a complete network history on their own computers. As the history of records grows, the number of people who can save a complete history locally will decrease. For example, as of June 2019, Bitcoin's network history was 226GB.

Spammers may dump large amounts of files into these XRP memo fields, taking up extra storage space to "flood" the network, making its running costs prohibitively high. In order to save costs, spammers will have to spend a lot of money to generate enough junk transactions, which will have a negative impact on the network. Many people believe that they can exploit this vulnerability to destroy the XRP blockchain.

It is reported that a Discord team tried to coordinate the attack on the XRP network and upload a large number of high-volume transactions at once. So far, this attack has not happened yet. Members of this group often visit the anonymous online forum 4chan, but currently they either did not successfully coordinate the attack or could not bear the cost of the attack.

XRP developer Wind is also worried about another issue. In theory, the network can be used to upload illegal content, which can cause the entire node to be considered illegal. However, several developers pointed out that the Bitcoin blockchain has been the case for many years and it seems that no measures have been taken to prevent this from happening.

To solve this problem, Wind posted a comment on the XRP Github account, suggesting a fee to protect the network. In order to solve this problem, developers have started technical discussions. Some developers support raising fees, while others recommend lowering fees. So far, no final choice has been made.

Ripple Chief Technology Officer David Schwartz said:

"On the positive side, I don't think there will be any serious short-term attacks. I think the threat is that the attacker may maliciously increase the cost of running the server and saving history for a long time. This is like the black knight said. : It’s just a bruise.”

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