Ripple CTO David Proposes Fee Refund Model for XRP Ledger

David Schwartz, Ripple’s CTO, has floated a straightforward but potentially game-changing idea: have the XRP Ledger (XRPL) refund any fees users don’t actually spend, reshaping how transactions are ordered, consensus is reached, and overall fairness is maintained.

The discussion began after developers from the XRP Ledger ecosystem clarified how the Xahau Hook engine works. When a hook is created, the system calculates a fixed execution fee upfront. 

That fee doesn’t change later and is always added on top of the base transaction fee. While this makes costs predictable, it also means users often pay for compute they don’t use.