Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse has hit back at naysayers who have criticized the XRP ledger for being centralized. Giving an interview at Ripple’s Swell event in San Francisco this week, the company’s head honcho was in a no-nonsense mood when discussing the relationship between Ripple and XRP.
As discussions in regards to centralized vs decentralized blockchain ecosystems rage on , Garlinghouse was abruptly clear on his position by saying that XRP is “fully decentralized.” He went on to accuse some naysayers of fighting “holy wars” and “spreading misinformation” because they have an economic interest in doing so.
In a bid to shoot down the XRP centralization issue, Garlinghouse pointed out that even as the CEO of Ripple, he cannot control the XRP ledger nor affect transactions. He believes that this statement alone proves how decentralized the XRP token really is. He also talked about the irony of calling XRP centralized, as he believes that Bitcoin is becoming more centralized by the minute, and how over half of the hacking attempts launched on crypto are on BTC. He also stated that there are three Chinese-based miners that can control a vast majority of the Bitcoin blockchain.
The argument that XRP and Ripple are pretty much the same entity is not new to the crypto industry. Garlinghouse has tried to distance himself and Ripple from that opinion and that the community needs to understand when Ripple does something that negatively affects XRP, the people have the access to check the ecosystem for wrongdoing and bring it to everyone’s attention.
The CEO is concerned that some portions of the general public still believe that Ripple and XRP are the same thing and addressed the critics - saying:
Ripple is a centralized company investing in decentralized technology, in the same way Amazon was invested in TCP/IP
Presidential Pedigree
Ripple’s Swell event has been a hive of activity this week with keynote speakers such as former US President Bill Clinton who took the stage by storm with his warm words for the crypto industry.
Clinton was upbeat about the future possibilities of blockchain technology and the need to safeguard the industry as it moves forward.
There are many positives to take from this week’s event. Mainstream figures such as the former president are praising the industry and its potential moving forward, and that the Ripple CEO has shown his mettle by finally addressing the criticism on the centralization of XRP and the relationship between the ledger and Ripple the company.
