Ripple CTO David Schwartz Claims Bitcoin (BTC) Proof-of-Work Mining is Not Safe, XRP Is
There are several discussions on whether XRP is a better digital asset than Bitcoin (BTC) and vice-versa.
Ripple and XRP supporters claim that Bitcoin is not safe with its Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus algorithm. Bitcoin supporters say that XRP is centralized and it is not a cryptocurrency.
Bitcoin and XRP; Two Different Digital Currencies
It is worth mentioning that Bitcoin and XRP have been created with two different ideas in mind. Bitcoin aimed at allowing users to perform peer-to-peer transactions in a decentralized way and without a central authority. XRP was created so as to reduce cross-border transaction costs for firms and companies around the world.
Ripple Chief of Technology (CTO), David Schwartz, mentioned that there is no other ledger that has better protection against a 51% attack than the XRP Ledger. He then said that the Bitcoin network could eventually experience such kinds of attacks in the future.
No blockchain that I know of has better protection against a hostile majority attack than the XRP Ledger does. Bitcoin will happily allow double spends if the majority of mining power is in hostile hands.
— David Schwartz (@JoelKatz) March 8, 2019
Schwartz then went on saying that all PoW systems are vulnerable and that there is nothing possible to do to fix them out. He mentioned that no matter how old the coins in the network are, a 51% attack would affect everyone with a value decrease of each BTC.
Ripple’s CTO mentioned that the Bitcoin network has moved towards centralization and 51% PoW attacks have affected several coins. Some of these examples are Ethereum Classic (ETC) or Bitcoin Gold (BTG). He has also explained that distributed agreements have also gotten more decentralized over time.
Bitcoin supporters claim that the XRP Ledger is centralized because around 60% of the XRP coins are held by Ripple Labs. The company uses the funds to be able to fund their activities throughout each month.
Ripple supporters say that Bitcoin is centralized, and other networks too, because mining activities take place mostly in China and large scale companies. Thus, if there is a problem affecting these miners, the network could be affected.
Bitcoin is currently the largest digital asset in the market with a price of $3,950 and it has a market capitalization of $69.44 billion. Meanwhile, XRP is the third most valuable cryptocurrency in terms of market cap with a valuation of $13.11 billion and a price per coin of $0.3164.
