‘The Biggest Risk we Face Today is Regulation’: Senior Ripple Executive

The senior vice president of product at Ripple, Asheesh Birla, has revealed that the biggest risk the company faces today is regulation.

As a result, Ripple is putting together a large regulatory team charged with the responsibility of ensuring that the next wave of clients that the startup wins are not hindered by regulatory bottlenecks.

One of the regulatory uncertainties that Ripple is currently grappling with is whether it should be classified as a security or not. While the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has clarified that Ethereum and Bitcoin are not securities, the same treatment has not been accorded XRP. However, the company has insisted that it is not a security and as reported by CCN last month, Ripple Labs CEO Brad Garlinghouse has gone to great pains to emphasize the company’s view.

During the ‘Scaling and Digital Disruption in Fintech’ panel session, Birla pointed out that the reason most countries across the globe were taking a conservative approach with regards to cryptocurrencies was that the sector is relatively new.

And while he acknowledged that cryptocurrencies held a transformative potential on the world, Birla termed what Ripple was doing as more of ‘reshuffling the world order a little bit’ rather than disrupting banks. Per Birla, Ripple’s technology will assist smaller financial institutions to better compete with the bigger ones.

However, the situation is better now compared to five years ago when blockchain and cryptocurrencies had not gained as much attention as is currently the case. Consequently, the caliber of talent that Ripple is now able to hire is better than was previously the case. Ripple is also in a better position of poaching from established Silicon Valley tech giants.

Источник: FxTeam