Ripple CEO: Bitcoin (BTC) Cannot Be Used for Payments, Your Coffee Will Be Cold
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse sat down for an interview in Davos, Switzerland, to talk about the rapidly changing financial industry. Among many other things, Garinghouse discussed Bitcoin's use cases and his company's IPO plans.
Alex DovbnyaA failed means of payment
Garlinghouse reiterated that Bitcoin is not suitable for micropayments. He took a jab at the coin's scalability problem, claiming that your coffee will be cold if you order it with BTC at Starbucks.
"You don’t want to use BTC at Starbucks b/c by the time you get your coffee, it’ll be cold."
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Bitcoin is only capable of processing about seven transactions per second, which prevented it from becoming a widely accepted means of payment. For comparison, XRP is able to process up to 1,500 transactions per second.
Still bullish on Bitcoin
Nevertheless, Garlinghouse is still bullish on Bitcoin as a store of value, which means that he sees the orange coin in the same category as gold. However, numerous skeptics in the likes of Bridgewater Associates co-founder Ray Dalio believe that Bitcoin cannot retain its value because of its immense volatility.
The price of the leading cryptocurrency has recently plunged by nearly 10 percent in just four days.
Is Ripple going public?
Garlinghouse also predicted that 2020 will be the year when many cryptocurrency companies will follow the lead of Canaan Mining and go public. He considers an IPO to be "a natural evolution" for Ripple but didn't specify the exact time when the blockchain giant is going to hear the sound of bell ringing.
“In the next 12 months, you’ll see IPOs in the crypto/blockchain space. We’re not going to be the first and we’re not going to be the last, but I expect us to be on the leading side… it’s a natural evolution for our company.”
As reported by U.Today, Ripple is now valued at $10 bln after its $200 mln Series C funding round.
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Dan Burgin
