Forbes magazine has released an article criticizing 20 different blockchains for their uselessness. Ripple's XRPL was also included in the list.
Unnecessary XRPL
The authors of the material called the Ripple network ineffective, and the XRP token "purely speculative", calling into question its market capitalization.
"To finance their ambitious project, Ripple executives created 100 billion XRP and sold them for $1.4 billion. At the beginning of 2018, at the height of the first wave of crypto euphoria, the token's market capitalization was $132 billion, which gave co-founder and executive chairman Chris Larsen an equity capital of $8 billion," the article says.
Journalists claim that the blockchain has failed to achieve its goal of improving the global financial network. In addition, XRPL has not proven itself as an alternative to the SWIFT cross-border payment platform.
As an argument for the "uselessness" of Ripple, Forbes pointed to low commission fees, which in 2023 amounted to about $583,000.
"Ripple Labs is a cryptosombi. XRP tokens continue to be actively traded for about $2 billion per day, but with no purpose other than speculation. SWIFT is only continuing to gain momentum, and now there are more efficient ways to send cross—border payments via blockchains, especially with the help of stablecoins like USDT," the authors noted.
For some unknown reason, Forbes did not take into account the low commissions in the XRPL. The network charges an average transaction fee of $0.0002, and SWIFT can charge from $10 to $100 for a cross-border interbank transfer.
The article also criticized Ripple's recent initiatives, including the recent acquisition of Standard Custody & Trust and the supervision of CBDC pilot programs in various countries. The magazine's arguments are based on the fact that these events occurred after more than ten years of the company's existence, indicating its stagnation.
Army of the Living Dead
Among other "zombie blockchains", Forbes highlighted Cardano, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, Internet Computer, Ethereum Classic, Stellar, Stocks, Kaspa, Theta Network, Fantom, Monero, Arweave, Algorand, Flow, MultiversX, BitcoinSV, Mina, Tezos and EOS.
The authors of the article divided the "useless" networks into two categories: by-products of early blockchains like bitcoin hard forks and direct competitors to the largest protocols.
"When programmers cannot get along with each other, part of the team separates and creates a new network — a split known as a hard fork," explained the principle of the appearance of such blockchains in Forbes.
At the same time, the leading protocols of the first cryptocurrency and Ethereum are recognized as "quite useful". However, according to the authors' observations, there are much more "zombie blockchains" than the listed 20.
"There are more than 13,000 cryptocurrencies listed on various exchanges, most of which have the characteristics of speculative penny stocks, apart from the fact that they do not represent ownership at all. [...] Any token can potentially turn into a meme coin based on just an overnight tweet by Elon Musk," Forbes believes.
Community anger
Charles Hoskinson, the founder of Cardano, reacted to the magazine's material, ironically recognizing his and other blockchains as "cryptosombi".
Hey guys @tezos @Algorand @bitcoincashorg @Ripple_XRP1 @StellarOrg @BobSummerwill we are all Crypto Zombies according to Forbes.
I guess it's because we got all the 🧠! pic.twitter.com/nwKbf7R4Pb
"It's probably because we have all the brains," he suggested.
Ripple lawyer Bill Morgan drew attention to the article, criticizing Forbes' conclusions.
‘Nailed it’ yep right. The so-called Zombie, says the article, where “not much is going on”.
Except, according to the SEC itself, not Ripple, more than 80 institutions since the lawsuit was filed in December 2020 have signed sales contracts to buy XRP to use in ODL. Institutions… https://t.co/LVOiMYCUgr pic.twitter.com/n5ij3kc6UW
"According to the SEC, not Ripple, since the filing of the lawsuit by the regulator in December 2020, more than 80 organizations have signed contracts to purchase XRP for use in ODL. Institutions obviously believe that the coin is useful for payments," Morgan stressed.
Panos Mekras, co-founder of Anodos Finance, called the article "nonsense", noting that its main author Stephen Ehrlich had not done enough research.
Yeah... excellent piece of nonsense and misinformation by @Steven_Ehrlich who is clearly misinformed and didn't bother to do the basic research for the piece he wrote. Unfortunately, these are the idiots who write on mainstream media and \"lecture\" the public and the masses.
— Panos 🔼{X} (@panosmek) March 27, 2024"Yes, excellent nonsense and misinformation from Stephen Ehrlich, who is clearly not aware of the issue and did not bother to conduct fundamental research for the article he wrote. Unfortunately, it is these idiots who write in the leading media and "lecture" the public and the masses," he wrote.
A user under the nickname TipsyTiger added that the cumulative XRPL commissions over the past year are actually a positive feature for the network. At the same time, the funds received from transactions are not considered income, but are burned.
They are transaction fees which are burnt.. Low transactions fees on the XRPL is an advantage. I know you’re still trying to understand this concept but reposting shit like this to readers that trust you whilst not explaining is a typical revert to type for you.
Time to grow up
Recall that in February, Forbes included Chainalysis, Fireblocks and Gauntlet in the list of the 50 leading fintech companies in 2024.
In June 2023, Ripple entered the top ten most innovative private firms according to the publication. It also includes Stripe, Blockchain.com , OpenSea and Alchemy.