The discussion about if XRP is centralised or decentralised continues and CEO of XRP, Brad Garlinghouse argues that XRP is very clearly decentralised and even he, the CEO of the company, cannot control the XRP ledger.

In a recent interview with financial news outlet Cheddar, Mr. Garlinghouse argues that XRP is very decentralised and that no one has control of XRP and that not even him, can change a transaction.

“Is XRP centralised or decentralised? It is very clearly decentralised. I, as CEO of the company, can’t control the XRP ledger. I can’t change a transaction,” he said. “Anybody can participate in the XRP ecosystem, and if Ripple does something that is not in the best interest of the ecosystem, the rest of the ecosystem can ignore us.”

He argues that Bitcoin and Ethereum are more centralised than XRP because miners in China has the power to control the Bitcoin blockchain for example. Garlinghouse says that fact will set XRP free and the fact is, that XRP is decentralised. If Ripple does not do what is best for XRP, then the rest of the network can ignore them. Ripple, on the other hand, is a centralised company investing in a decentralised technology.

Two months back, Ripple wrote on their website that Bitcoin and Ethereum are currently viewed as the gold standard for decentralisation, meaning they are architected in a way that no single individual or minority group can dictate rules or rewrite transaction. Since these blockchains are considered decentralised, then by design, the XRP Ledger is also, if not more so, decentralised, than both Bitcoin and Ethereum.

However, not everyone agrees, some argue that a company created XRP and that the technology is more centralised than both Bitcoin and Ethereum. Even after the owners sold XRP tokens for several years, Ripple still owns a majority of the cryptocurrency’s total supply. They also claim that irrespective of whether one agrees with Ripple’s attestation that it did not create XRP there is no denying that Ripple and its founders received owned 100 per cent of the XRP tokens when the network launched.

Lastly, Ripple’s CEO argues that many people have economic benefits in spreading misinformation about XRP which could be the reason behind the argument.

“I think there’s a lot of people out there that are fighting ‘holy wars,’ and they’re spreading misinformation…because they have an economic interest,” he said. “Ripple is a centralised company investing in a decentralised technology, in the same way, Amazon was investing in TCP/IP, in some ways.”

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