Ripple’s Chris Larsen Changes Tune on Bitcoin
Kyle Torpey
Earlier this year, Ripple Labs Founder and CEO Chris Larsen made headlines by claiming, “We don’t think the world needs a new currency; we already have plenty.” The statement was made during a presentation to the California General Assembly. It appeared as if Larsen was of the opinion that the technology behind bitcoin and other forms of distributed ledgers was much more important than the creation of a new currency or digital asset. Naturally, Larsen — and Ripple Labs — faced a sharp spike in criticism from the bitcoin community over the remarks.
Larsen was recently interviewed on Brett King’s Breaking Banks radio show, and it appears that he may have decided to change his tune on his criticism of bitcoin as a useful alternative to fiat.
Larsen’s new stance on bitcoin
During his recent appearance on Breaking Banks, Larsen was asked about the bitcoin vs blockchain debate. Although it seemed as though Larsen had no love for bitcoin as a currency in the past, he was much more accepting of the concept of a new digital asset in his response to Brett King’s question:
“I think they’re fundamentally different things. Bitcoin is a digital asset — digital assets are incredibly interesting, it’s a brand new thing for the world — and there are plenty of powerful use cases and people will desire that.”
Larsen went on to say, “As a digital asset, bitcoin has succeeded.” He also noted that Ripple is “currency agnostic,”, which alludes to the fact that bitcoin can be sent via the Ripple network.
Ripple’s XRP competes with bitcoin’s BTC
Another interesting statement Larsen made in regards to bitcoin and Ripple was, “You really can’t compare the two, they’re just really different things.” Larsen seems to be alluding to the idea that some users will find bitcoin useful due to its dedicated to decentralization, while others will find that Ripple’s more permissioned approach will be desireable. While it’s true that bitcoin and Ripple are not necessarily direct competitors, the XRP token still exists in the Ripple system. This means that XRP does compete with BTC on some level.
Ripple’s real competition is not bitcoin
Although Ripple and bitcoin are not direct competitors as distributed ledger systems or technologies, there is plenty of competition in the permissioned distributed ledgers market. Other options, such as Eris Industries and Hyperledger, offer similar, permissioned options that do not require the use of a new token — like XRP. These seem to be Ripple’s true competition when it comes to these ledger systems that are not meant to be completely incorruptible and permissionless. It’s unclear if bitcoin or permissioned distributed ledgers will be chosen as the main backbone of our future, digital economy, but there are a variety of different financial technology companies putting their own spin on this new advancement in digital payments.
Via: http://insidebitcoins.com/news/ripples-chris-larsen-changes-tune-on-bitcoin/33158
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