Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum, recently made a statement on Twitter to criticize the decentralization of XRP, which is the fifth largest cryptocurrency by market value. His remarks received significant backlash.
Vitalik Criticizes XRP
In a recent interview, Buterin criticized XRP for being completely centralized. He made these comments while discussing the qualities that crypto projects should have to be considered part of the field.
Buterin stated, “Crypto projects do not need to be decentralized,” and added:
IOTA and XRP are still completely centralized, yet they are still listed as cryptocurrencies on CoinMarketCap.
XRP Community Reacts
As expected, members of the XRP community reacted angrily to Buterin’s comments. A strong supporter of XRP, Riz.XRP, claimed that Buterin had “killed” XRP and other crypto projects outside of Bitcoin and Ethereum. Other XRP enthusiasts shared examples to prove that ETH is more centralized than XRP. This is not the first time Buterin has criticized XRP. In 2020, Buterin urged Ethereum enthusiasts not to support Ripple in its legal battle against the SEC.
Furthermore, in August 2022, Vitalik Buterin explained why he was angry with the Ripple and XRP community following new regulations that imposed restrictions on specific crypto assets, including Solana (SOL), one of Canada’s largest smart contract platforms.
In a tweet, Buterin reminded a member of the Ethereum community of Ripple’s December 2020 application classifying Ethereum as a “Chinese-controlled” crypto asset. Vitalik said this in response to a member who said they would not mind if XRP was restricted in the new regulations. Vitalik Buterin said:
XRP lost its protection rights when they tried to throw us under the bus as “Chinese-controlled” imo.
In conclusion, the ongoing debate about the centralization of XRP is likely to continue for some time. However, Buterin’s comments have certainly increased awareness of the issue and provided an opportunity for the XRP community to gather.
