<p><img src="https://static.cryptoglobe.com/filer_public_thumbnails/filer_public/b0/43/b0436d90-ecff-4fcc-95b1-f215f830d719/ripple_bubble_waves.jpg__740x380_q85_crop_subsampling-2.jpg" width="740" height="380"/></p>
<p>&nbsp;A Stanford University student has highlighted a possible conflict of &nbsp;interest, alleging that Stanford Graduate School of Business professor <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/susanathey/">Dr. Susan Athey</a>&nbsp;may&nbsp;have used her position at the university to plug the Ripple protocol and associated cryptocurrency (<a href="https://www.cryptocompare.com/coins/xrp/overview">XRP</a>) - while also sitting on Ripple Labs’ Board of Directors <a href="https://ripple.com/ko/insights/welcome-susan-athey-to-ripple-labs/">since 2014</a>.&nbsp;</p>
<h2>Bitcoin Bashing</h2>
<p>The claim is a complex one and needs unpacking. The student, <a href="https://twitter.com/_ConnerBrown_">Conner Brown</a>, came out publically&nbsp;about a <a href="https://twitter.com/_ConnerBrown_/status/1099539374792835073">week ago</a>&nbsp;with &nbsp;his claims that Athey inaccurately described the Bitcoin protocol and &nbsp;network, and based on that inaccurate description made unfounded &nbsp;criticisms of Bitcoin during a lecture. The lecture seems to have taken &nbsp;place more than a month ago, according to Brown's comments. Brown, who has written an <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1MA5I08fBY-b_oOPm9drWZ523sdPVw5WBiD5y32SKsJU/edit">open letter</a>&nbsp;to Stanford regarding the incident, outlined arguments against what he sees as false claims. To wit, he says Brown inaccurately described Bitcoin’s consensus &nbsp;protocol; overstated the problem of Bitcoin mining centralization; &nbsp;overstated the threat of a 51% attack on the Bitcoin network; and &nbsp;overstated the Bitcoin network’s environmental impact. The upshot of Brown’s criticisms, however, are not just that Bitcoin &nbsp;was misrepresented in the lecture hall of an elite US university - but &nbsp;that Ripple was presented to students as a solution to Bitcoin’s &nbsp;(misrepresented and poorly framed) problems.&nbsp;</p>
<h2>Takeaways</h2>
<p>It seems clear enough that a portion of Dr. Athey’s lecture was &nbsp;indeed dedicated to plugging Ripple and its xRapid technology. Athey &nbsp;seems to excuse this behavior as legitimate, citing her large and &nbsp;obvious disclaimer at the beginning of her lecture that she was &nbsp;affiliated with the blockchain company. Whether or not her choice of &nbsp;forum for this purpose&nbsp;was in fact legitimate, is open to debate and &nbsp;opinion. And although Athey’s class slides do not unduly defame Bitcoin and &nbsp;its tech, if Brown is to be believed about the verbal statements made &nbsp;during the lecture, Athey’s criticisms of Bitcoin do seem specious and &nbsp;half-baked.&nbsp;</p>