David Schwartz, former CTO of Ripple, has highlighted the frequent technical hard forks experienced by the XRP Ledger (XRPL), more than most mature public blockchains. The XRPL is currently operating on version 3.1.3, which includes a critical "fix amendment" set to activate in nine days. As of May 18, only 40% of the network has updated to this version, raising concerns about network consensus and the potential for a split. Schwartz explained that the XRPL's design necessitates such upgrades to function as hard forks, contrasting with a simple "one node, one vote" system that could be vulnerable to Sybil attacks. He emphasized that the outcome of any fork depends on the Unique Node List (UNL) rather than the proportion of validators. If a community split occurs, it could lead to two competing ledgers and UNLs, each with its own code distribution.