Ripple Criticized for Centralized Control: XRP Holder Advocates for True Decentralization on XRPL

• An XRP holder has called out Ripple, its top management and related entities for prioritizing their own interests over the advancements of the XRP ecosystem.
• He listed some of the projects that Ripple has pushed just to get the opportunity to sell off their XRP tokens and make a profit, while the projects had no impact on the ecosystem.

Ripple has failed the XRP community and continues to push narratives, projects and agendas that only benefit the company, its management and their affiliates. This is according to one disgruntled XRP holder who took to X to blast the company for failing to prioritize the entire ecosystem.

Known to his followers as Dark Horse, the researcher called out CEO Brad Garlinghouse, CTO David Schwartz, President Monica Long, and other leaders for “your bot use, your XRP-0, Prisma, Your net-neutral ODL transactions, [and]your reliance on centralised exchanges.”

He believes Ripple has continued to push projects that do little for the millions of XRP holders “but allow you to distribute your 300 million XRP every month.” He specifically cited Root Network and OpenEden Tbills as some of the projects that do nothing for the good of the ecosystem but have received massive backing from Ripple. The former is built on Substrate’s open-source blockchain framework and connects games and content. OpenEden, on the other hand, offers tokenized Treasury bills on the XRP Ledger and received $10 million backing from Ripple recently. However, according to the researcher, “no one in the US or UK can qualify for” OpenEden’s products.

The researcher also tore into Ripple’s ‘legal misrepresentation.’ The blockchain firm was ordered to pay $125 million to the SEC recently to conclude a legal battle that has gone on for years. As we reported, many leaders in the XRPL ecosystem considered this a victory as the SEC had initially demanded $2 billion.

However, the researcher says that Ripple’s Chief Legal Officer Stuart Alderoty has falsely been claiming that the conclusion of the case now means “XRP has the same legal clarity as BTC.”

Ripple Has Centralized XRP: Researcher

Beyond the internal working and legal battle, the researcher argues that Ripple has centralized the XRPL ecosystem and has been pulling the strings to protect its interests. This includes the botched implementation of the Xahau Layer 2 network and Hooks, which were built to add smart contract functionality to XRPL.

He stated:

…you can’t amend the XRPL. It is not decentralised; if Ripple doesn’t want it, or doesn’t like it then the XRPL will not get it, add it or even acknowledge it. The Hooks amendment should have been an eye-opener to all XRP holders. Yet we sit and listen to paid Ripple employees push narratives and agendas to appease the community but in reality, you won’t get anywhere.

The researcher says that Ripple’s top brass shun and remove anyone who questions what any move is doing for the XRP holders.

He concluded:

It’s time Ripple—it’s time for you to put this control of the XRPL back in the hands of the community. Remove your hold over the validators, add more democracy at the top of the amendment chain and start using that so-called XRP that was supposed to be used for the benefit of the XRPL in places where it doesn’t just benefit you and your Ripple shareholders.

XRP trades at $0.554, dipping less than 1% in the past day, although it’s down nearly 7% in the past week for a $31.167 billion market cap.