How a Ripple CTO’s Quixotic Quest for Visibility Could Shake the XRP World

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Ah, dear reader, it appears that even in the digital age, our fearless CTO, David Schwartz – or shall we say the modern Prometheus of blockchain – has decided that mere hardware is forever beneath his clever ambitions. No, he has plucked from the ether a plan to tame the wild beast we call “monitoring.” Because nothing says ‘fun’ like peering indefinitely into the abyss of server stats, I suppose. 😏

Weeks after astonishing the XRP community by commissioning a server out of his own pocket-an act of heroic enthusiasm worthy of a Victorian gentleman-he is already plotting his next act. Behold, the quest for *visibility*! Think of it as the blockchain’s version of a lorgnette-only instead of seeing Parisian opera-goers, Schwartz aims to scrutinize the performance of his XRPL server with a custom-made monitor. Unlike those pedestrian tools like rrdtool or Cacti, our hero is determined to craft a bespoke spectacle, because why settle for stock when you can have something uniquely Wildean? 🎩

This isn’t mere vanity, oh no. The server-a marvel of engineering nestled in a New York datacenter-boasts a 9950X processor, 256 gigabytes of RAM, and a 10 Gbps unmetered link. It’s already singing in harmony, syncing and providing connectivity like a well-trained orchestra. And Schwartz? Well, he’s dreaming bigger-“more server connections,” he claims, “possibly more,” all while preparing to unveil what he assures us is not a graph, not a dashboard-no, not even Grafana, which he dismisses with the disdain of a critic at the opera-just raw, unfiltered insight into the mighty XRPL’s heartbeats. Because what the network truly needs, of course, are *more* sharp insights, not shiny distractions. 💼

Not yet. That’s my next step. I’m probably going to make a custom monitoring program to allow rrdtool/Cacti to monitor XRPL node parameters. I’m sure something like that already exists, but I miss writing code. 😉

– David ‘JoelKatz’ Schwartz (@JoelKatz) August 5, 2025

In truth, Schwartz sees himself as a lone voyager-an indie warrior who prefers the path of solitary craftsmanship over corporate mandates. As he fortifies his poetic fortress of infrastructure, one wonders if this quiet rebellion will enrich the decentralization he so ardently champions-or merely entertain us with its understated brilliance. And so, the XRPL, much like the fin de siècle salons of old, might soon revel in renewed connectivity and insight, all thanks to one man’s eccentric pursuit of clarity amid chaos. Cheers to the digital alchemist forging order from the chaos of code! 🥂

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2025-08-05 12:53