Total Ripple (XRP) Decentralization May Take Longer than 20 Years

The distribution of XRP locked by Ripple Inc. in escrow may extend longer than the scheduled 55 months to over two decades.

This is the observation of one supporter who is now seeking clarity from Brad Garlinghouse, the CEO of Ripple, in an upcoming podcast.

4/
– At this rate Ripple's escrow will take more than 2 decades to run out. Is that the plan? Do they plan to accelerate the distribution at some point or is there something else in the works?

— Leonidas Hadjiloizou (@LeoHadjiloizou) February 10, 2020

Ripple Shifting Strategy

The root cause of his concerns stems from Ripple Inc.’s decision to change tact in their distribution and the effect of colossal sums of coin held by the project’s founders, especially Jed McCaleb.

Jed is said to have embarked on a selling spree and has over $1 billion worth of XRP at his disposal. Amounts which he won’t hesitate to unload assuming the current restrictions are lifted.

? ? 100,000,000 #XRP (26,322,440 USD) transferred from Ripple to Jed McCaleb wallet

Tx: https://t.co/z0hfij5kmE

— Whale Alert (@whale_alert) September 7, 2019

The relationship between Ripple Inc. and XRP is closely watched. Of note, the amount of XRP shuffled between different XRP addresses on the open source ledger is subject to scrutiny, and there exist dedicated trackers to watch the movement of these coins.

XRP Decentralization

For good reasons. The decision to slowly decentralize XRP from the hands of Ripple Inc., an independent company whose valuation exceeds $10 billion, was scheduled to be effective after 55 months.

Then, depending on the XRP released from escrow, the network would be completely decentralized with no entity with majority ownership of the third most valuable coin.

“To provide additional predictability to the XRP supply, Ripple has locked 55 billion XRP (55% of the total possible supply) into a series of escrows. These escrows are on the ledger itself and the ledger mechanics, enforced by consensus, control the release of the XRP.”

However, it wasn’t about coin distribution alone. The number of validators were supposed to be shifted away from Ripple Inc. to third parties. This has so far been a success and the number of full nodes operated by third parties exceed those ran by the company.

XRP Prices Lackluster

While holding XRP in escrow could provide predictability, XRP prices have been lackluster compared to the performance of other coins.

For example, while XRP struggles below 30 cents, Tezos (XTZ) price has nearly doubled in the past trading month.

Part of this could be because of Ripple Inc. releasing and locking XRP in their escrow. Just recently, 500 million XRP were released from escrow and locked a few days later as prices steadied.

? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? 500,000,000 #XRP (126,137,081 USD) locked in escrow at Ripple

Tx: https://t.co/z0MWautxBF

— Whale Alert (@whale_alert) February 3, 2020

Meanwhile, Brad Garlinghouse has publicly stated that the company has no intention of dumping XRP and has since prevented third parties from acquiring coins directly from them lest they proceed and dump them on the open markets.

CNN Interview with Ripple’s CEO Brad Garlinghouse (2/2) #Ripple #XRP #ODL pic.twitter.com/7sbHpf3W40

— XRP 2020 (@XRP_2020) January 4, 2020