As Kraken adds XRP margin trading, it appears to have been drawn into a Ripple versus XRP naming debate that first emerged earlier this year.

How the debate began with Kraken is unclear, but Kraken tweeted in an obvious response to a reference to its adding “Ripple XRP” to the platform and a recent blog post announcing the additions of XRP and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) to its margin trading offering.

There does seem to be some ambiguous, and maybe tongue in cheek requests to buy “Ripple” shares rather than XRP coins via Kraken.

Dear XRP Army, Ripple is (and was first) a payment protocol whose native currency is XRP. You could suggest the eponymous company change its name (again) to avoid ambiguity. The convention is <protocol> <asset>, like: Ripple XRP, Ethereum ether, Bitcoin bitcoin, etc. 💙 — Kraken Exchange (@krakenfx) December 29, 2018

Some in the Kraken user community seem to prefer XRP to be named simply XRP but Kraken argues it’s following an industry-wide convention of talking about coins in terms of protocol, then asset, just like Ethereum (ETH) or indeed Ethereum ether!

It’s easy to see where the confusion stems from, coins, companies, and protocols are used interchangeably but generally, there is a convention to talk in terms of blockchain followed by the coin’s “ticker.”

People seeming to find confusion in a company having the same name as a protocol, some claiming to think that buying XRP is buying Ripple company stock, some wanting "Ripple" to never be mentioned in the same sentence as XRP. — Kraken Exchange (@krakenfx) December 29, 2018

The response to Kraken has been mixed, with some Twitter followers openly expressing their annoyance with Kraken, or maybe whoever is tweeting for Kraken, suggesting Kraken could lose custom over the debate, which continues…

Efforts to Distance Ripple and XRP

Kraken may have fallen into a much older argument that there should be some distance between Ripple, or Ripple Labs because the cryptocurrency and blockchain exists in its own right.

Ripple itself tweeted in May 2018 and a slight shift in branding from Ripple XRP to XRP occurred:

There is a community movement for a unique #XRP symbol. We agree! XRP is independent of Ripple. Submit your idea now. #XRPCommunity https://t.co/ZnfVMiK9i2 — Ripple (@Ripple) May 10, 2018

The “XRP Symbol” initiative’s organizer Alexavier Guzman said:

“Because XRP does not currently have its own symbol or logo, the currency is often associated with Ripple’s trademark…Because of this, many people believe that XRP is a product of Ripple, and even go as far as to call XRP ‘ripples.’”

XRP received its own, new, logo, a few weeks later.

It’s hard to see how, or why, XRP could be split from Ripple. XRP utilisation is a major part of Ripple Labs growing RippleNet offering and suite of financial software.

Though XRP isn’t being used by Ripple’s 100 plus financial and banking adopters of its blockchain network, Ripple certainly would like more of them to use XRP for transactions.

At the end of the day, Ripple develops financial products that use XRP and at one point owned 80% of the total supply of XRP. Ripple Lab’s still owns around 60 billion XRP. The success of the XRP coin is inextricably intertwined with Ripple.

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