XRP Ledger Stronger Than Bitcoin in Terms of Censorship Resistance, Ripple CTO Claims

Ripple CTO David Schwartz recently took to Twitter to opine that XRP Ledger, the blockchain built around the Ripple cryptocurrency, is stronger in terms of censorship resistance than Bitcoin.

According to Schwartz, the controlling factor of any public blockchain is what users are willing to accept. With Bitcoin, all you need is money, the Ripple CTO says. “For XRPL, you have to convince people you’re right,” he added.

Discussing Satoshi Nakamoto’s vision for Bitcoin from the latter’s 2008 whitepaper – “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System” – Schwartz theorized that Nakamoto pitched a system for electronic transactions that had trade-offs similar to cash, which also does not allow for reversibility. He agreed with the principles behind this vision but specified that cryptocurrencies should not necessarily be used for consumer payments, as wire transfers are not typically employed for this purpose either.

Schwartz went on to point out how central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) rely on reversible payments, which he maintains is one of the reasons that crypto could never be completely obsolete.

The Ripple executive also disputed a claim that it is possible to reverse XRP Ledger with a fork. “A fork doesn’t reverse anything. A fork creates two paths with different transactions after some well-defined point. When XRPL forks, users do have to choose which side of the fork they want to be on,” he tweeted.

Since the software requires 80% support to consider a side of a fork to be valid, it is obviously impossible to have 80% support on both sides, Schwartz added.