Who has control over the top four cryptocurrencies?
Ripple.
XRP. Love it or hate it. There is a strong debate over whether Ripple controls XRP and several lawsuits lie in the balance. Is it decentralized?
ð®âââWhile Ripple owns a lot of XRP, that doesnât directly mean they control the network.
â©ï¸âââXRP Ledger requires 80% of validators, over a two-week period, to continuously support a change before it is applied.
ðâââXRP would exist without the company Ripple.
And is it centralized
âï¸âââRipple has the ability to freeze
IOUs?
on the network and reverse transactions of them.
ð¦âââRipple owns the majority of XRP and its handling of it will certainly affect the price of XRP, meaning it has control over the coinâs price.
ð¨âð»âââItâs most prolific Github contributor, David Schwartz, known as Joel Katz, is also CTO at Ripple.
ð¢âââXRP has 900 nodes but fewer than 150 of them account for the majority of connections as Ripple recommend a list of validators. This list includes nodes that are run by Ripple.
ðµâââThe top 100 accounts own 80% of XRP, excluding the large amount held by Ripple in escrow.
Conclusion:
Ripple, the company, and XRP, the coin, are often used interchangeably. It looks like this is because there is a lot of overlap. There are decentralized elements of the coin but itâs controlled in several ways by a single entity which means it is centralized.