A few weeks ago, Ripple CTO David Schwartz revealed his intention to set up invalid hubs running XRPL applications, other hubs, and server-specific hubs. It works as a single server as a production service with maximum uptime and reliability.
Servers rely on a single hub, and Schwartz reveals plans to collect data from data to understand the behavior and performance of the network, and there are no destructive testing unless there are very unusual circumstances that justify it.
In recent feedback, Ripple CTO said he received the first strange data from the hub. According to Schwartz, while tracking peer round trip latency at the application level, there was a strange spike that started at 1:59am PDT, which significantly worsened performance for around 15 minutes.
What was perplexed by Ripple CTO was that it was unclear whether the issue was caused by the hub. This is because we expect a near constant increase in latency across all connections. “Maybe it was a hub network connectivity issue?” Schwartz asked.
Strange network behavior?
Three peer connections (of 343) fell at the time of the incident. Traffic was reduced very slightly, possibly as a result of the peer disconnection, but no other anomalies were seen.
I have the first strange data from the hub. I’m tracking peer round trip latency at the application level, but I had some weird spikes that significantly worsen performance for around 15 minutes.
Spikes begin at PDT around 1:59am.
Something that confuses me…pic.twitter.com/binwg2keyl– David ‘Joelkatz’ Schwartz (@Joelkatz) August 15, 2025
Provided further context, Ripple CTO said: “I only have good instrumentation for one day, so I don’t know if this is a fluke, or if it can happen at a time every day, or if it can happen randomly.”
Schwartz said it is likely a reason for abnormal behavior, flagging network bandwidth hiccups as the most likely explanation. “Network congestion is my main theory,” he said.
Going forward, Schwartz said he is working to fundamentally improve the hub instrumentation to know more if it happens again and add alloy/graphana monitoring.
In the development of a positive XRP ledger, FixAMMV1_3, FixEnforCenftokEntrustLinev2 and FixPaychancancanafter won the majority and launched a 14-day countdown timer. If these amendments retain their support throughout the countdown period, they could be activated on August 29, 2025.
