With hot summer days, the Cryptoverse is getting some hot maxi debates as well: while the Ethereum battle is still ongoing in the virtual space, another battle is now focused on XRP.
Following a long string of scam accusations against various projects, today it’s XRP’s turn – again, with Bitcoin (BTC) supporters saying ‘told you so.’
Us “maximalists” tried to stop people from buying XRP. We honestly tried. Shitcoin exchange operators and bag holders of the unending list of worthless altcoins tried to guilt trip us and convince you that we’re stifling innovation. This is the end result. We told you so. https://t.co/0Ab92MMc6N
— grubles (@notgrubles) August 7, 2020
For context, XRP 1.74m is worth around USD 531,400 today. XRP trading volume surpassed USD 2.8bn in the past 24 hours.
Blockchain technology firm Blockstream, which is focused on Bitcoin-related technologies, engineer Grubles argued that “shitcoins exist predominantly to enrich the people benefiting from the premines and not those who fairly acquired BTC.” And while he said that nobody cares “about switching signing keys or invariant bullshit,” they care “that Jed [McCaleb, co-founder of Ripple] and Ripple are dumping ripple constantly.”
Ripple Chief Technology Officer David Schwartz, however, doesn’t see an issue with people who have crypto wanting to sell it. Using a term like “dumping” is “just an attempt to make it nefarious,” he tweeted, adding that BTC “has to sell millions per day just to run securely.”
And your complaint seems to be, and to only be, that the people who created this value kept it rather than enriching bitcoin holders who created none of this value.
— David Schwartz (@JoelKatz) August 7, 2020
@JoelKatz you were waxing poetic about innovation. Explain that, lols: Jed and ripple dumping on retail insane amounts per day. The only puzzling things are a) why are retail so stupid to keep buying XRP, and b) why the SEC hasn’t shut it down with prejudice already. “Innovation”
— Adam Back (@adam3us) August 7, 2020
The argument of the so-called Bitcoin maximalists can be summed up in this one phrase: all coins but BTC are a scam. Just yesterday, we reported on another online ‘fight’ between Ethereum (ETH) co-founder Vitalik Buterin and Blockstream CEO Adam Back, the latter of which has been claiming for years that ETH is – you guessed it – a scam.
Now, to be fair, the arguments behind the accusations are a lot more complex, often highly technical – for ETH, it’s often about premines, while for XRP, it’s dumping coins – and occasionally they can get more centered around ideology than anything else. Nonetheless, the discussions do bring forth a myriad of issues on which it might be a good idea to reach some consensus.
Still, “calling everything but bitcoin a scam is both pretty much accurate and a shortcut to save time. It’s not perfect, but it’s better than other approaches imho,” tweeted Gigi, a well-known Bitcoiner, developer, and independent writer. He said that it’s impossible to debate everybody who might be mistaken, so pointing out to the other projects collectively as frauds would be the fastest approach.
On the opposite side of the discussion stood developer Udi Wertheimer with an opinion that “scam” is being used too liberally, and that calling “other people’s hard work” a scam is not helpful. Just the opposite, said he – people might get alienated. “You can disagree – even strongly – with someone’s actions or ideas, without implying malice,” said Wertheimer.
Oh I see many people thankful for such guidance, but never did someone tell me “hey this guy called some shitcoin a scam and that really helped me put things together”. You generally need to be more elaborate than that in my experience
— Udi Wertheimer (@udiWertheimer) August 7, 2020
At the time of writing (12:54 PM UTC), the first coin by market capitalization, BTC, is trading at USD 11,760. It unchanged in a day and advanced by 5% in a week. Third by market capitalization, XRP, is changing hands at USD 0.31. It went up by 1% in a day and 24% in a week.
Both ETH and XRP outperformed BTC in the past month and in the past three months by a wide margin. Meanwhile, in the past 12 months, ETH is up by 75%, while BTC and XRP are down by around 1%.
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Learn more:
Communities Are Vital For Crypto Projects But Might Become Less Important
Investors Accused Ripple CEO of Dumping XRP While Touting It
XRP Jumps As Ripple Sees Stronger Demand From Institutions
Ripple Lawyers Hit out at XRP-related Class Action Suit Claimant
Ripple CTO David Schwartz On Its Founding, Ledger & XRP
The Jed McCaleb Story: Founding Stellar, Ripple, eDonkey & Mt. Gox