• The UNL is a list of the validators that Ripple believes are most reliable to verify transactions.
• Ripple aims to eventually no longer be a part of the process in selecting validators.

Decentralization is one of the key components of the cryptocurrency industry that has proponents excited. The fans of Ripple and XRP are now taking a moment to celebrate, due to a recent milestone achieved on the XRP Ledger. According to a recent article from crypto news outlet DH, the list of trusted validators with Ripple has been updated, and the new details reveal that 79% of the nodes no longer are run by Ripple, which is major progress for decentralization. More specifically, only seven of the 34 UNL validators recorded on the network claim Ripple as their owner.

Validators in the Ripple network are in charge of performing the math to decide if transactions are valid. This validity determines if the network accepts or rejects the transaction, which is meant to prevent abuse and double spending on the network. The list of trusted validators, which is a unique node list (UNL), shows which validators are deemed most reliable by Ripple.

True decentralization means that there is no one company or entity that is in charge, and Ripple has come under fire multiple times from the public for their seeming lack of decentralization. Still, Ripple aims to eventually remove itself from the process by which these validators are determined.

Ripple isn’t the only one with this type of process. CoinField, a cryptocurrency exchange in Canada, has recently launched a UNL validator.

CoinField's XRP Validator is now officially part of the UNL trusted list. 🎉🎉https://t.co/rb3TvRwTUa#xrp #XRPcommunity

— Reza Bashash (@rezabashash) October 9, 2019

Right now, there’s a project that Ripple is keeping under wraps to help them increase the adoption of the native token. However, at least until November’s Malta Blockchain Summit, this project remains a secret to anyone outside of the Ripple team.