In January 2019, in the Stanford class, Susan Athey, a professor of economics at the Ripple Board of Directors and a well-known professor at the Stanford University School of Business, gave a guest lecture entitled “Blockchain and the Future of Finance.”

Among the hundreds of students who listened carefully, there was an ordinary, seemingly inconspicuous student. He frowned and became more and more disappointed.

This is the story’s founder, Conner Brown. The story is simple but profound: Professor Susan Athey is wrong!

In Brown’s opinion, Professor Athey’s speech contained a number of misstatements about the basics of Bitcoin, with some interest-driven.

Shilling XRP in an academic environment she said:

“…all of those problems can potentially be addressed, and indeed startups are working on all of them within the Bitcoin community. However, it made me wonder whether there wasn’t a simpler way to solve this problem, one that still took advantage of the fundamental innovation from Bitcoin, a secure ledger. As I was grappling with these questions, I learned about the Ripple protocol. I realized that it addressed all of these problems.”

And the worst of that according to the storyteller twitter this is not the first time. After the speech, Brown was very dissatisfied with Professor Athey’s mention of bitcoin in his speech. Considering that most of the beginners in the classroom are unfamiliar with the basic concepts behind Bitcoin, he thinks it is necessary to reflect this to the school. So he sent an email to the school board, which fully revealed his current concerns.

He waited hopefully for the school’s reply. But for more than a month, he did not receive a “looking decent” response.

Posted below is an email that I sent to the Stanford GSB after a presentation in one of my classes. My professors refused to talk in person after bringing this to their attention. Over a month later I still have heard no response, other than “we will get back to you on this.” — Conner Brown ⚡️ (@_ConnerBrown_) February 24, 2019

On February 23, Brown complained on Twitter that the only response he has received from the school so far is an e-mail with a concise and imaginative space. “We will contact you about this”

Where is the Stanford Professor wrong?

Professor Athey mentioned in his speech that Bitcoin is controlled by a small group of miners in China and wastes a lot of power to solve useless math problems. Bitcoin is an “economically secure, not encrypted” currency.

In the speech, Professor Athey dissuaded Bitcoin. In her opinion, Ripple XRP is a better solution than Bitcoin. She pointed out that exchange rate fluctuations, trust crisis with exchanges and long trading hours are obvious drawbacks of Bitcoin. At the same time, Professor Athey detailed the Ripple XRP, xRapid API, and consensus mechanisms, arguing that Ripple XRP is faster, cheaper, safer, and more energy efficient.

In contrast, Brown expressed his thoughts in the mail. He believes that certain views and opinions about Bitcoin are subject to “high-level discussions and rigorous review by peers.” It also elaborated on the mistakes of Professor Athey’s speech.

When talking about “Bitcoin is controlled by a small group of miners in China,” Brown believes that Athey confuses the mining node with the entire node and throws the idea that “XRP is a better alternative to Bitcoin.” He also countered that miners can pool their resources in a pool, but there are many miners in these pools, and no one can fully control bitcoin.

Speaking of Professor Athey’s belief that “bitcoin is economically secure, not an encrypted currency,” Brown believes that Athey once again confuses two different concepts: “stealing funds by stealing wallet keys” and “using computing power against bitcoins.” The network is 51% attacked.”

Is academic ignorance? Or is it driven by interest?

Soon, this incident was exposed on Twitter and spread quickly. Some netizens revealed that as early as April 2014, Professor Athey joined the Ripple Labs Board of Directors and still plays an important role.

Brown said that regardless of whether Athey was malicious in his speech, it didn’t matter to him.

“It concerns me that my classmates’ first introduction to Bitcoin contained severe factual errors along with strong anti-Bitcoin rhetoric. The academy is not a place for marketing, but rigorously testing ideas. If a professor has a potential conflict of interest, they should be held to the highest standards of scrutiny and peer review. “That being said, Bitcoin is a creature of the internet. Its properties are difficult for academics to appreciate due to its deeply interdisciplinary and evolutionary nature. This makes it difficult for developing a curriculum because of the siloed design of academic disciplines and the slow pace of the peer review process. The internet will always be the best place to pursue a Bitcoin education.”

Full Browns message text

End of the story

This blatant promotion in an academic environment not only bring in question Athey integrity but also the Stanford academic integrity.

References:

https://news.bitcoin.com/ripple-board-member-misrepresents-bitcoin-favor-xrp-stanford-lecture/

https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/stanford-student-calls-out-crypto-professor-inaccurate-bitcoin-lecture/