The interest in Ripple is greater than ever. Earlier this year, XRP came out of its lateral movement, going from around US $ 0.30 to almost US $ 4. While the price soon fell back, Ripple continues to captivate new and numerous fans, who animate their ads and alliances. 

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As many are willing to point out, Bitcoin and XRP are not exactly the same. To label both as "cryptocurrencies", for some, would be like saying that fruits are vegetables.

"I do not call this cryptocurrency. It's not currency, "Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said at a Yahoo Finance conference in February. Instead, the company seems to prefer the term "digital asset". In fact, terms such as token, asset, unit and currency are used indiscriminately throughout the industry.

So, although XRP may not fit the definition of cryptocurrency, examining technology from the lens of this nomenclature and its debates can be useful to understand its main features.

XRP is centralized

One of the main criticisms of XRP is that it is not truly "decentralized".

Decentralization is a big problem for cryptography enthusiasts. In many ways, it is an attribute that separates cryptocurrencies from old money systems online, where a central authority could block or control transactions.

The supporters of the "decentralized cryptocurrencies" proclaim that the Internet is an example of a decentralized system, since the information moves freely and openly (with some restrictions) and without any central part in the middle operating it.

Others see centralization as compensation, arguing that it is often too inefficient.Ripple developers readily admit that XRP does things differently and is not as decentralized as they would like.

The debate, then, is not about how centralized Ripple is, but about whether it produces better money online without the same total decentralization of Bitcoin.

The argument against XRP : Some argue that XRP does not add anything new in the way of innovations in cryptoeconomics, another buzzword in this emerging field.

One of the most publicized arguments is that Ripple, the company, selects which nodes validate the transactions, compiling what is known as the Unique Node List (UNL). In Bitcoin, Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies, anyone who runs the software can perform this action.

In fact, an important exchange of cryptocurrencies came to mention this point in a research report on Ripple published last month, which argues that XRP "has no clear purpose."

Although Ripple has created a series of entities to validate transactions on the network, similar to those of Microsoft and MIT, which are now running XRP nodes, critics argue that thanks to the way the algorithm is configured, other nodes rotate towards the trust in the Ripple node and, therefore, the company itself.

The argument in favor of the developers of Ripple : Ripple argues the opposite, that XRP is better than traditional cryptocurrencies for several reasons: it is faster and more scalable. In addition, it is less expensive to ensure that Bitcoin PoW, which consumes a lot of energy.

Ripple's chief market officer, Cory Johnson, went so far as to argue that XRP "demonstrates intrinsic value" that stands out among more "humble" currencies and assets.

In addition, the developers of Ripple have argued, time and time again, that they plan to decentralize XRP over time, an objective they have registered in their company's blog. Following this line, startups are already looking to do things with XRP, such as ICO releases, for example.

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In a previous interview with CoinDesk, Ripple's CTO, Stefan Thomas, went on to claim that XRP will be "more decentralized" than Bitcoin in the future, since they add more validators and improve technology. Both he and other Ripple developers also argue that they have kept their past promises.

When XRP was not open source, critics predicted that it never would be. But Ripple opened the source code for its "full node" XRP, which means it could get more scrutiny from external developers and users could use it for the first time to join the network in 2013.

Due to his track record of decentralizing XRP, which includes adding 55 more validators to the network last year, the Ripple developers believe there is at least some reason to believe he will fulfill his vision, no matter how ambitious.

The relationship of Ripple and XRP is problematically ambiguous

Leaving the nomenclature aside, there is still a relationship of Ripple with XRP Ledger to analyze.

A recent Bloomberg report noted that, because XRP is not clearly defined, the SEC could consider it a security (financial) security, that is, a guarantee. The claim seems to stem from Ripple's attempts to include XRP in major stock exchanges, which according to the news source may have failed due to this ambiguity.

"While the currency does not represent a share in Ripple's ownership, the concern is that the close relationship could still lead regulators to consider XRP as a guarantee," the report says.

The argument against Ripple : Critics argue that there is a case in which XRP could be considered a guarantee, due to the way in which, in many ways, a variation in the initial currency supply model (ICO) was launched.

In fact, after XRP Ledger (then called Ripple Consensus Ledger) was created, XRP tokens were distributed to users of the popular Bitcoin forums, in a way that is not so different from what is now called a "launch". aerial".

Despite being speculative, the comments point to another issue: the apparent preference among Ripple executives for praising XRP when the price is rising.

According to critics, when the token receives more attention, as in recent months, Ripple's leaders proudly exhibit it. In a recent Fox News interview, for example, CEO Brad Garlinghouse touted XRP specifically as the beginning of a "new asset class" that solves a "global payment problem."

Meanwhile, when it is operating sideways, the company's public face does not make noise, critics point out, adding that if Ripple really believes that XRP is a crucial piece of its product, the startup should announce it constantly.

The argument in favor of Ripple : For others, the issue of whether or not it is a guarantee is irrelevant.

On the one hand, Ripple's business does not directly influence the value of its cryptocurrency, although it would undoubtedly benefit from the type of demand generated by the large banking institutions that use it to move transactions.

In this way, the supporters argue that there has always been a clear purpose for XRP: it makes the financial products created in the platform even faster and cheaper.

Also, it is not exactly fair to say that the entire company has changed its opinion about XRP.

Many of Ripple's top developers and researchers have clung to the idea of ​​the XRP as a token, even when the public face of the company seems less firm.

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Banks do not have a reason to use XRP

Ripple has always promoted itself as a partner of banks and other large financial services providers, but many critics believe that the company does not give these suppliers any compelling reason to use XRP.

That said, a number of companies have started using the three Ripple products, xCurrent, xRapid and xVia, this year. Even several financial institutions and payment providers have begun to test the use of xRapid, the only Ripple product that depends on the use of XRP.

The argument against Ripple : According to critics, XRP will never have much adoption by large entities. (Even some Ripple customers have said that they think XRP is a too volatile and risky currency to adopt at this time).

"P4man", investor and pseudonymous essayist of cryptocurrencies, argues that the two ideas that Ripple tries to mix only have meaning independently. RipplePay, an idea that allows local communities to have more control over their currencies, makes sense as an innovative way to send money through a network of people that users trust. And Bitcoin makes sense as a new type of digital currency without control.

But crushing them together, as Ripple does, simply does not work, he says. Rather, it results in an overly complex system that does not result in what it is supposed to do: cheaper and faster payments.

And P4man makes an even bolder claim: The only "logical reason" for the existence of XRP is to make Ripple get money in the middle of the cryptocurrency craze, a claim that he and other critics believe is backed by the fact the company and associated foundations own at least 60 billion of the 100 billion XRP coins in total.

The argument in favor of Ripple : Ripple and his supporters, however, believe there is a reason: they often describe Ripple's ledger products as the Trojan Horse. Once they successfully take Ripple's horse to enough banks around the world, they will unleash XRP in the financial system, taking them by surprise.

And this is something that is already happening, as Ripple begins to encourage companies that use xCurrent to move to xRapid to get more liquidity.