XRP Architect David Schwartz: Crypto Adoption Shouldn’t Get Ahead Of The Tech
In an interview with the Internet History Podcast, David Schwartz, a key player behind XRP and Ripple’s (the company) chief technology officer, painted a mildly harrowing picture for the adoption of cryptocurrencies. As cited by Forbes‘ Billy Bambrough, the supposed multi-millionaire, who is lauded as the creator of much of XRP’s functionality and Ripple’s financial technology products, explained that he doesn’t want “adoption to get ahead of the technology.”
While the San Francisco-based innovator didn’t explicitly state that he sees current crypto-centric tech as antiquated, his aforementioned comment sure alluded to it. Schwartz, who goes by Joel Katz on Twitter, then drew lines between the early days of Dotcom and crypto today, explaining that the Internet itself, widely regarded as humanity’s greatest innovation, took a “long time” to experience an adequate maturity cycle.
The Ripple executive is likely alluding to the sentiment that cryptocurrency infrastructure, specifically wallets, applications, and exchanges, remain largely underused, as such products are often slow, expensive, and hard to interact with. Exchanges, for instance, may be overwhelming for most retail investors, especially those that have not played in financial markets previously.
Crypto Adoption Grows, Even Amid Bear Market
Regardless, in spite of his comments, the adoption of crypto assets, and the growth surrounding this industry is undoubtedly there. Nasdaq, one of the world’s preeminent financial institutions, recently announced that it is slated to foray into the crypto market. According to firm representatives, the New York-based firm has begun to work on “crypto 2.0 futures” with VanEck, the company behind the leading Bitcoin ETF application, and is slated to bring such a vehicle to market by H1 2019.
Other key institutional players also announced similar forays, with Bakkt, backed by the Intercontinental Exchange, Starbucks, and Microsoft, slated to launch its physically-backed BTC futures contract by mid-January.
XRP, Ripple Has Also Seen Growth
XRP And Ripple have also seen their fair share of adoption and real-world use, albeit in (what some would classify as) centralized systems. R3′ Corda, for instance, is an open-source enterprise-focused product based on XRP technology. The program will allow R3 and its users to access a “Settler,” which will act as an intermediary between a wide range of government-issued fiat currencies, crypto assets, and future securities based on blockchain technology.
Even American Express, or at least one of its key employees, recently lauded Ripple’s technology as a way to improve how financial transactions take place across the world. At a conference, Carlos Carriedo of the world-renowned institution explained that not only is blockchain something AMEX is looking at, but that Ripple’s cross-border transaction system was “very transparent and seamless.”
And again, while some of XRP’s skeptics aren’t in line with Ripple’s business practices, the fact of the matter is that crypto-related technologies have seen an uptick in adoption, even while the blockchain-based assets remain depressed in terms of price. This, in and of itself, could be considered a long-term positive signal for this only decade-old industry, which came into being when Satoshi Nakamoto first launched Bitcoin.
XRP Website Image Courtesy of Marco Verch On Flickr
