Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of Ripple , attended the Stifel Cross Sector Insight Conference 2018 to share his thoughts on the long-term impact of Ripples technology and the future of cryptocurrencies.

Ripple CEO: “Blockchain will not destroy banks”

Tech analyst Lee Simpson interviewed Garlinghouse at the Stifel Cross Sector Insight Conference 2018 on the current crypto situation. Garlinghouse responded to misunderstandings in industrial applications and worldwide distribution. He explained that decentralized technology would complement rather than disturb current banking systems:

“Blockchain will not destroy the banks … it will play an important role in the functioning of our system. It’s a short-sighted view ….“

Ripple, as a Blockchain-based payment transfer network and settlement system, aims to change the way banks and people around the world transfer money. Garlinghouse highlighted the long-term goals of the ripple platform:

“When I think about transformation, it fundamentally changes the way millions are involved in banking. We can radically change the way it works to take a whole population a step up.“

Garlinghouse: “China controls Bitcoin”

Garlinghouse criticized Bitcoin as the future global currency, making it clear that Ripple aims to outperform Bitcoin through faster transaction speeds and banking market usability:

“Bitcoin needs 45 minutes to complete a transaction today … Some celebrities, even Steve Wozniak, have said that he sees a world where Bitcoin is the main currency. I think that’s absurd. I do not believe that a big economy allows that. By the way, that makes no sense.“

Unfortunately, Garlinhouse has not made any reference to future scaling solutions, such as the Bitcoin Lightning Network. The Ripple CEO also believes Bitcoin is centralized. Why he emphasizes this is unclear, but could be related to the constant allegations that ripple has a pure central nature.

“I’m telling you another story that’s under-reported but worth paying attention to.” Bitcoin is really controlled by China. There are four miners in China who control over 50 percent of Bitcoin …. How do we know that China will not intervene? How many countries want to use a currency controlled by China? “

According to blockchain.info, Chinese chip maker Bitmain and its subsidiaries BTC.com and AntPool control more than 40 percent of Bitcoin’s global hash performance.

In conclusion, Garlinghouse stated that Bitcoin and the global cryptocurrency and blockchain industry are still at an early stage of development. His last remarks in the interview were: