Ripple’s CEO discusses the growth of blockchain digital asset industry

In the August edition of AMA [Ask Me Anything], Cory Johnson, the Chief Market Strategist of Ripple interviewed the company’s CEO, Brad Garlinghouse. They covered a wide range of topics, including Brad’s general viewpoint on the cryptocurrency space and the performance of the blockchain digital asset industry in 2018.

He also spoke about Bakkt a new exchange platform which was started by ICE a company who owns the New York Stock Exchange. Brad shared several points to express his opinion on the subject. He stated:

“I thought 2018 would be a year where the institutions would really get involved in a big way in crypto and I think in some ways the industry has underperformed where I would have predicted. And some of the reasons are institutional custody of digital assets are quite not where it has to be to really at scale address the issue and the regulatory questions that have emerged in the course of 2018 has probably slowed things down.”

In the last several months, the SEC has become increasingly vocal in warning investors about the risks of cryptocurrencies. The industry can see progress only by addressing such regulatory problems. Institutional solutions which come online have a major role to play in its development. Many people around the world thought 2018 was the year where the institutions will contribute towards the development of blockchain industry but Brad had a different perspective. He stated:

“A lot of people thought 2018 was the year of the institution, there are certainly examples of institutions coming in, Bakkt a new exchange being championed by ICE which owns New York Stock Exchange but I thought 2018 probably would have seen more”

Ripple, on the other hand, has seen one of the best years until 2018. They managed to sign one production contract per week [Customer] during the first quarter and signed two production contracts per week in the second quarter. The reason for its growth is the value Ripple’s network has in the present. He said:

“The value of the network is equal to the square of the nodes of the network, Metcalfe’s law. The value of the network is becoming more valuable so we have more customers pluging in and more customers getting excited about joining that journey”

Brad discussed many topics which gave an insight into the future of Ripple and its products and the whole blockchain digital asset industry in general. About the security aspect, he said, “it is a good thing that SEC has said Bitcoin and Ether are not securities”. Coming onto the XRP, he illustrated how recently Abu Dhabi Global Market [ADGM] recently mentioned that XRP is not a security.