Ethereum vs Ripple: Cockfighting in Crypto Space

The fight has been going on since 2018. In his earlier speech, William Hinman, former director of the SEC’s corporate finance department, gave Ethereum a regulatory license: ETH is not a security.

Because Ripple also demanded this for its XRP coin, there has been a legal dispute with the US Securities and Exchange Commission since then.

How did the argument start?

In a later-deleted blog post, Ripple claimed Bitcoin and Ethereum were controlled by China: “XRP consistently ranks in the top 3 cryptocurrencies by market cap – alongside bitcoin and ether, the two China-controlled virtual currencies that the SEC does not label as a security Has.” The document was a summary of Ripple’s Wells filing with the SEC in December 2020.

The statement alluded to the large Bitcoin and Ether mining industry in China. When China banned bitcoin mining in the country last year, the hash rate plummeted.

Vitalik condemned this attack on the two largest cryptocurrencies. At that time it was said of him: “You [Ripple] claim that their shitcoin should not be called security for “public order reasons”, namely because Bitcoin and Ethereum are “Chinese controlled”.

Fireworks on Twitter

The regional securities regulator Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) from Canada implemented massive restrictions on the crypto market in the form of purchase limits for crypto currencies last week. BTC-ECHO reported.

As a result, Vitalik railed against XRP, again taking to the Twitter medium: “XRP has already lost its right to protection when they tried to throw us under the bus as ‘China-controlled’.” David Schwartz, CTO at Ripple, then stepped in and fueled the discussion.

He joked about ETH and accused the project of wanting to eliminate competitors through the government. He also sneered that Ethereum was comparable to the listed online marketplace eBay.

Also, I think it’s perfectly fair to compare miners in PoW schemes to shareholders in companies. Just as eBay shareholders make money from the residual value friction between buyers and sellers that eBay does not eliminate, so do ETH and BTC miners.

David Schwartz on Twitter

It’s no surprise that Schwartz is getting a lot of approval from the XRP community. The Twitter followers now bombard the tweets of the other side and clean up vigorously.

This annual competition raises the question of whether the crypto community should work together instead. With combined forces and in exchange with the responsible regulatory authority, the question could perhaps be clarified: Is Ripple a security – yes or no?