Thread by @krippenreiter

[1/🧵] That is a genuine question, and while the answer may disappoint you, it isn't as important as one may believe.

Let's go back in time to find out what happened and thoroughly address the question. 🧵👇

https://twitter.com/ScamDetective5/status/1601420731438755840

[2/19] 🧐 First and foremost, let us establish some fundamentals and address the question:
❓ Is "block" the proper term to use ❓

Yes & no, as @JoelKatz puts it:
"The transactions are stored in a series of ledgers, but an #XRPLedger contains everything a block contains.
. . .

[3/19] . . .

So because it’s a chain of ledgers, it’s also a chain of blocks."

The primary distinction between #Bitcoin and #XRPL is that the #XRPLedger utilizes an account model rather than a #UTXO model, thus the term "Ledger".

quora.com/XRP-is-not-a-b…

[4/19] Now for the answer to the question. The simple but disheartening answer is: No. 😳

But don't worry, you'll soon see why that's simply a "cosmetic issue" and nothing to be concerned about.

[5/19] The reason for my statement is that the so-called "genesis block" (or Ledger) is absent from the #XRPL.

To be more specific, the first #32569 closed ledgers are missing and cannot be examined further, as is the Ledger #299 (+ account balances) specified in the question.

[6/19] In contrast to #BTC, which requires to DL the whole TX history in order to know the full set of #UTXOs & execute new TX, #XRPL leverages what are known as "ledger entries", which collectively reflect all balances at a particular moment in time.

xrpl.org/ledger-data-fo…

[7/19] That is why it is not essential to know the account balances of every genesis account and ledger in order to be absolutely assured that no more than 100B #XRP exist.

In principle, assuming that extra #XRP existed in the past,
. . .

[8/19] . . .

The latest we'd learn about it is ledger #32570, which holds the status of all balances and objects ("account state data") held in the closed ledgers at this time that has been validated beforehand ("parent hash"), as well as
. . .

[9/19] . . .

the set of transactions that were applied to the prior ledger to produce the newest one, and finally metadata about the ledger version (ledger index, crypto. hash) and information about the parent ledger that served as a basis. 🧐

[10/19] As defined in the code, the state data, which is required to know the balances of each account, is stored in every ledger, so that the #XRPL will continue to work without issue even when the first week of #XRPLedger history is virtually gone.

[11/19] This is stated in the #XRPL documentation:

"Unlike many blockchain technologies, each new "block" in the #XRP Ledger contains the entirety of the current state, so you don't need to collect the entire history to know what's happening now"

[12/19] @krippenreiter, you may argue, that's not true! I don't want to trust; I want to verify!

That is precisely the appropriate mentality, therefore let us apply it by utilizing a WebSocket API of a #XRPL rippled server in "reporting-mode" 😉

xrpl.org/rippled-server…

[13/19] This allows us to query the public #XRPLedger and request any property that we are interested in.

In this scenario, we wish to request the following settings/properties:
☑️ "ledger_index": "32570",
☑️ "validated": true,
. . .

[14/19] . . .

The outcome should clearly show:
☑️ "totalCoins"
☑️ "total_coins"
☑️ "close_time_human"

[15/19] If you want ALL of the data from this particular ledger-index shown and nothing hidden, make the following changes:

"full": false ➡️ "full": true

To get "admin-rights" for this request, you must run your own reporting server.

xrpl.org/websocket-api-…

[16/19] Now that this has been addressed, let's look at why these #XRPL Ledgers are missing in the first place.

As said by @JoelKatz:
"There was a bug that caused ledger headers not to be properly saved.
. . .
web.archive.org/web/2017121122…

[17/19] . . .

All the servers running at the time had the same bug. #Transactions were properly saved as were, I believe, all the #nodes inside the ledgers. Only the ledger headers are missing. I tried to reconstruct the headers but got stuck on 32,569."

[18/19] Because all that was lost were the ledger headers, there is still hope that the #XRPL history may be retrieved at some point in time because all of the transactions are still available (though privately held by @JoelKatz AFAIK).

Not all is lost in this endeavor. 😇

[19/19] Danke an jeden Leser, der sich die Zeit genommen hat, diesen langen Thread zu lesen ❤️

Falls dir der Thread gefallen hat, kannst du mir hier gerne folgen:
@krippenreiter

... und gerne hier beim Teilen helfen. 👇

https://twitter.com/krippenreiter/status/1601659774177013760?s=20&t=ggsPj3qrqWiN7UwvbppRkg

@threadreaderapp unroll

@WKahneman 👋

In case you're wondering about the quantity of "totalCoins" in that image.

The answer is as follows:

https://twitter.com/krippenreiter/status/1602094183187156994?s=20&t=WTWt1pkr33ZT-srRc672SA