Ripple more than doubles XRP Ledger’s validator network since May

Ripple, the California-based distributed ledger provider, earlier this week announced that over the past two months it had more than doubled the size of its validator network.

In a statement released on Monday, the company said that the XRP Ledger ecosystem had expanded to 55 validator nodes, marking an increase of 120 percent since May. The new validators include WorldLink, Telindus-Proximus Group, Swedish Internet service provider Bahnhof and AT TOKYO Corporation, among others. They join a growing network of companies and organisations, such as Microsoft, MIT and CGI, that are currently validating transactions on the XRP Ledger, Ripple added.

The expansion is part of Ripple’s strategy to make the XRP ledger more decentralised. By adding more validators the company is trying to strengthen its blockchain and propel XRP as the globally preferred digital asset for payments.

Mathew Pulickel, senior VP for emerging technologies at WorldLink, explained why his company decided to join Ripple’s validator network: “We believe Ripple’s network will revolutionize commerce in the future and the way our customers do business, and that’s why we have chosen to run a validator node on the XRP Ledger.”

“Ripple and the digital asset XRP will have an equally impactful effect on the time and cost associated with cross-border payments,” he added.
Ripple also announced plans to add two third-party validators to its Unique Node Lists (UNLs) in the coming months.

This year Ripple’s token XRP has established itself as the third-largest cryptocoin by market capitalisation, behind bitcoin and ethereum. The digital currency’s price reached an all-time high of $0.33 in May, which was followed by a significant decline, in line with a downward trend seen on the broader cryptocurrency market.

In today’s trading the Ripple price stood at $0.184, as of 12:07 BST. The cryptocurrency has gained 5.6 percent over the past 24 hours, according to data from Coinmarketcap.