At a fireside chat on cryptocurrency tagged “The Law and Regulation of Cryptocurrency,” the general counsel and executive vice president of Ripple, Stuart Alderoty, was the interviewee who clarified issues regarding the law and regulation of cryptocurrency.
During the chat, Alderoty said XRP sits on an open permissionless ledger, adding that he hard evidence that the United States’ Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced that they are going to establish a node on XRP ledger and other open permissionless ledgers.
Alderoty said the announcement had been made some months back, and SEC did not call Ripple to ask for authorization, but intend to go ahead with it.
The chat began with the host giving a brief description of what Ripple blockchain technology is all about, and a brief bio of Alderoty.
The interviewee noted that Alderoty, at Ripple, is in charge of all legal corporate governance and risk management.
He earlier served as the General council for HSBC North American holdings and the managing council at North American Express.
The interviewer in her statement also agreed that Ripple is different from Bitcoin, Ethereum and Facebook’s Libra as stated by Alderoty after Facebook’s hearings on Libra project at the senate.
The interviewer described Ripple as a firm focused on powering the technology of payment networks to enhance the archaic banking system.
When asked about how regulators and consumers should address Ripple, Alderoty said Ripple is a fintech company that complies with regulations because its customers are banks and payment providers across the globe which are being supervised by their own regulatory agencies.
The executive vice president of Ripple said the blockchain enterprise does not only try to comply with its customers’ regulations, but also the US’ regulations.
Alderoty described the over 200 customers they have across the globe as a rapid growth for Ripple.
As regards Ripple’s open letter to the congress, the interviewer urged Alderoty to tell the room more about XRP token and its technology.
In response, the former HSBC top official said Ripple issued the open letter to the congress in response to Facebook’s Libra white paper which stirred concerns among congress.
Alderoty said Ripple used the letter to inform the congress not to paint all cryptocurrency companies with the same brush.
“It was a letter to Congress that basically said don’t paint us all with the same broad brush and there are companies like Ripple which is a software solution they sell to banks and those banks can or cannot use a digital asset to enable the software solutions,” Alderoty said Ripple is not looking to displace fiat currency.
“We are looking to be a bridge between fiat currency cross border and not to topple central banks.”
Alderoty, while explaining that the letter was dedicated to informing the congress that they should learn about the space and get well informed about the technology before offering legislation, added that Ripple is rather looking to partner the reserve bank.
