Speaking at the 2018 Stifel Cross Sector Insight Conference in Boston, Ripple’s CEO Brad Garlinghouse said that “Bitcoin is really controlled by China”.
In the latest interview with Stifel Tech Analyst Lee Simpson, the CEO probed into a number of subjects related to blockchain technology and the crypto world. He asserted that BTC is under the control of China, saying:
“I’ll tell you another story that is underreported, but worth paying attention to. Bitcoin is really controlled by China. There are four miners in China that control over 50 percent of Bitcoin. How do we know that China won’t intervene? How many countries want to use a Chinese-controlled currency? It’s just not going to happen.”
The Ripple CEO also expressed his outlook about BTC’s and XRP’s principal technology, the blockchain, arguing that it “will not disrupt banks,” though “it will play an important role in the way our system works,” however “it’s a short-sighted view.”
Garlinghouse said that “Bitcoin today takes 45 minutes to settle a transaction,” while Ripple’s XRP takes 4 seconds to settle, he declared. He illustrated it as “the best digital asset for settlement.”
According to the BitMex report on Ripple and the XRP token, the team carried out an internal test with Ripple’s technology. The team fixed and ran a copy of Rippled, the node, by downloading five public keys from Ripple’s server—all assigned to Ripple.com. Reports indicate that four of the five keys were necessary for an application to gain acceptance.
The report states, ‘Since the keys were all downloaded from the Ripple.com server, Ripple essentially controls the entire process of moving the ledger forward, making the system arguably centralized.’
A new study by University of Texas’ staff released today, proposes that half of the BTC price surge in December last year was clearly due to Tether and issuer Bitfinex. The paper explains transaction patterns showing that Tether provided price support and manipulated cryptocurrency prices. It affirms that Tether purchases followed market downturns and triggered sizable increases in Bitcoin prices.