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Ripple's Schwartz Slams Fee Metric as 100x XRP Fee Hike Is Floated

Schwartz Questions Whose Interests Higher Fees Serve
People paying to use a blockchain face costs that fee revenue metrics can overlook, according to David Schwartz, Ripple’s chief technology officer emeritus. In an exchange on X on Oct. 4, he criticized fee revenue as a metric and questioned whose interests it represents, responding to a suggestion that $XRP Ledger validators raise transaction costs to burn more XRP.
Schwartz stated:

“I think fee revenue is a terrible metric since it measures how much friction the chain *didn’t* remove. If you represent the people who collect the fees, then fees are great. But what about the people who *pay* the fees? Who cares about their interests?”
His argument draws a distinction between income for fee recipients and the expense borne by people making transactions. On networks such as Bitcoin, cryptocurrency network fees compensate miners for including transactions. The response shifts attention from the amounts collected to the costs of using those systems.

$XRP Fee Proposal Centers on Burns, Not Validator Income
The exchange began with an X user arguing that investors and analysts increasingly evaluate base-layer blockchains by fee revenue. These networks process transactions on their own ledgers. The user contended that XRPL’s fraction-of-a-cent charges make it look economically insignificant under that measure, even though inexpensive settlement is central to its purpose.

The user’s counterargument was that XRPL’s transaction fees are permanently destroyed rather than distributed to validators, the servers participating in consensus, or agreement on transactions. The user framed that supply reduction as a benefit for every xrp holder. In this view, higher charges would increase the amount burned per transaction rather than generate income for network operators.#Write2Earn $XRP