Ripple’s CEO Brad Garlinghouse shares stance on the real value of cryptocurrencies, regulatory framework and more

On 1st September, the Chief Executive Officer of Ripple, Brad Garlinghouse spoke with Standford Legal and discussed some of the significant subjects in the cryptocurrency space. Here, the main focus of the interview was the regulatory aspect of cryptocurrencies.

On being asked of his opinion on the illegal transactions in Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, Garlinghouse stated that many industries begin in the darker parts of the society. Eventually, people start to realize the benefits and productive use cases of that industry.

He further said that the world of cryptocurrencies originated from the ideas of anti-governance, anti-establishment, anti-banking and so forth, with anonymity at the center of it. Regarding the existence of Ripple in this space, the CEO stated:

“…that’s in some ways for what the business ripple is building, that’s a frustrating thing because it takes time and education to explain, there’s a lot of misinformation. There real-world use cases as we talked about earlier with its payment settlement cross-border or security settlement where you can use these techniques to have real-world positive benefits on economies, on consumer experience, business experience.”

Subsequently, Garlinghouse believes in the process of authorization and said that the anonymity dynamics in the technology is subject to concern. He also shared his stance on KYC [Know-Your-Customer], which he sees as a positive procedure in the regulatory framework.

The discussion moved ahead where Garlinghouse spoke about the relevance of Ripple’s service and cryptocurrencies in countries with unreliable banking systems. In his opinion, fiat currencies work well and will be a preference in the consumer world for the next decade. However, looking at the countries where the scenario of the fiat currency is weak, such as hyperinflation, cryptocurrency will be much easier to hold for survival. In his words:

“If I were a consumer experiencing hyperinflation, would you rather hold a cryptocurrency or you’d rather hold your fiat currency? And a lot of those cases, you’re seeing people take pesos of various sorts and saying – I’d rather hold this because it’s a better asset to hold in terms of a potential appreciation and lack of inflation.”

Lastly, the panel demanded an explanation about the value of these cryptocurrencies, since the prices keep fluctuating unpredictably. Garlinghouse stated that the long-term value of any digital asset is correlated with its utility of solving a problem. For instance, some cryptocurrencies intend to solve the problem of anonymity, some aim at solving a security settlement issue, therefore, the ultimate value of a digital asset in the market comes from its utility.