Earlier this month there were some rumors flying around that SWIFT is using Ripple’s xRapid technology in its latest upgrade. However, SWIFT was quick to point out that this was nothing but conjecture and that its new upgrade is better than xRapid – much to the delight of the crypto community. Brad Garlinghouse – Ripple CEO – wasn’t going to take this lying down, so he decided to hit back and trash talk SWIFT in an interview with Bloomberg. The results were comical, as the CEO of the most disliked crypto on the planet openly talked smack about a competitor.
A Totally Pointless Partnership
Rumors of a partnership between the two firms started when a Ripple representative attended the Swift Sibos conference in Sydney. Reporters and second-rate journalists took this as a sign that the two entities had formed a partnership. SWIFT was quick to deny the rumors and this triggered Garlinghouse who retorted saying,
“I think what we’re doing and executing on a day-by-day basis is – in fact – taking over Swift. In that, we’ve now signed up well over 100 banks. Some of the largest Swift-enabled banks in the world are now using Ripple’s technology.”
Watch out SWIFT, apparently Ripple is now bigger than you.
SWIFT’s Clients Don’t Agree with It
SWIFT hasn’t been the biggest supporter of blockchain technology, but it’s still in its early days. Banks around the world are already dabbling in it and there is a good chance SWIFT is waiting to iron out the bugs before it implements the technology in its products. However, Garlinghouse took this opportunity to attack SWIFT by saying,
“Swift said not that long ago that they didn’t see blockchain as a solution to correspondent banking. We’ve got well over 100 of their customers saying they disagree.”
Still Defending His Own “Crypto”
Garlinghouse has been attacked and mocked countless times for his alleged cryptocurrency XRP. The crypto community believes it’s a security rather than a token, due to the fact that the founders and company hold the majority of the token share. Garlinghouse and his marketing team have been fighting this battle for years, and apparently still are. Garlinghouse attacked Bitcoin and said,
“It’s 1,000 times faster than Bitcoin and 1,000 times cheaper than Bitcoin, to enable those transactions. You’re seeing the market, I think, react to that. Ripple is using that same technology, at scale with financial institutions and banks. It’s been unequivocally a record year for us. We have been signing over two production contracts per week with banks, ranging from a large bank in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.”
Apparently just sticking to trash talking SWIFT wasn’t enough. No matter the argument or rumor, Ripple and its team of cronies always find a way to try to prove that XRP is a real crypto. In fact, earlier this year Ripple announced Bill Clinton as a keynote speaker at its Swell conference and it didn’t go down well at all. The crypto community abused Ripple and threw tons of memes back at the announcement. If Garlinghouse keeps picking fights he will only worsen Ripple’s reputation within the crypto community – that much is certain.
