CEO Ripple, Brad Garlinghouse did not agree with Steve Wozniak and founder of Twitter Jack Dorsey. He is sure that the first cryptocurrency is completely controlled by China, where the largest mining pools are located. He stated it, speaking at the 2018 Stifel Cross Sector Insight Conference.
China Controls Bitcoin
The problem of centralization of cryptocurrency, due to mining, is extensive, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse believes, TheStreet.com reported June 12. According to Garlinghouse, it can be argued that China controls bitcoin. That is due in part to the fact that the country has the largest mining pools.
“A number of prominent people, even Steve Wozniak, has said that he sees a world where Bitcoin is the primary currency. I think that’s absurd. I don’t think that any major economy will allow that to happen. By the way, it doesn’t make sense.”
He added: “I’ll tell you another story that is underreported, but worth paying attention to. Bitcoin is really controlled by China. There are four miners in China that control over 50% of Bitcoin”
According to him, no large economy will allow Bitcoin to become a single world currency.
“How do we know that China won’t intervene? How many countries want to use a Chinese-controlled currency? It’s just not going to happen.”
The largest mining pools BTC.com, Antpool, F2Pool and BTC.TOP are located in China. It amounts 59% the hash-rate of Bitcoin (a unit of measure that determines the processing power of mining equipment). Taking into account the smaller Chinese pools, the country will account for more than 75% of the total Bitcoin mining.
The future of cryptocurrency market
Brad Garlinghouse believes that bitcoin has not become a panacea for for all problems.
He said: “Bitcoin today takes 45 minutes to settle a transaction.” While XRP could take 4 seconds to settle.
“Banks will use what is efficient and cheaper. And if you deliver a better product at a better price… they will use it.”
He also considered that the blockchain will not destroy the banks, but will play an important role in the financial ecosystem in the near future.
Garlinghouse added that he owns bitcoins and encourages to invest in cryptocurrency only those funds that will not be a pity to lose. Garlinghouse noted that it is too early to talk about the future of the cryptocurrency market.
