But that's not the whole story - there's several important factors to take into account to truly understand how things reached the level of intensity we're at today. The other reports i've seen this week we're all missing crucial parts of the story.
Before diving in I must add - I neither own any XRP, or have a grudge against Ripple. I understand how Ripple's involvement with the big banks turn some people off to it. I also think expecting the banking industry to sit back and simply watch cryptocurrency grow is unrealistic. If Ripple wasn't working with them, someone else would be. So i'm literally neutral, making me qualified to cover all this fairly.
So let's begin - at the actual beginning.
Grudges between the two sides goes way back:
Ryan Selkis is the founder of Messari, the firm that made this week's claims against Ripple.
But the hate between Ryan Selkis and Ripple fans goes way back, long before this report.
Ryan shared his opinions on Ripple over a year ago, calling XRP "a sham". On his personal blog, he wrote an entry called "I See You, $XRP" where he explained his stance at length.
From then on he was among the 'most hated' by Ripple's community, with leaders like Tiffany Hayden labeling him a 'liar'.
But that just seemed to motivate Ryan more, he explains it:
"The XRP community is irredeemably awful" their hate for him is actually "a badge of honor."
Then this week's research report calling XRP overvalued was released:
Knowing the long-standing animosity between the two sides, the response was fairly predictable.
Ripple's supporters argue that it would be impossible for a company founded by someone who takes pride in being hated by them, to conduct honest unbiased research.
But those supporting Ryan say he has such a nasty history with Ripple fans because he's long known 'the truth' - and they just hate hearing it.
Which now brings us to the last 72hrs:
Following the release of the report from Messari, Ryan claims he's been on the receiving end of threats and harassment, saying:
"Someone just called me from a Nashville number and recited my wife’s birthday to me. Then hung up.[Ripple's CEO] these are the type of animals you and your fucking company enable."
He then demanded the company's leaders step in and tell their fans to back off:
"I want [Ripple executives] to denounce any $xrp community threats against my family. I’m going to the fbi and local police after THREE calls. Ensuring our family doesn’t get swatted. I’m not going home until it’s publicly stated."
Where things stand today:
As you can see there's an established history of each side responding to the other by stepping up their attacks. Keeping that tradition - things have gotten even worse.
The Ripple community maintains their stance that he's a liar, and now adds that he's even lying about the threats made to him. As one member who goes by 'Cryptocrusader' says:
"Can this lying sack of shit prove anything that exits his pie hole. Selkis makes a living telling lies
Don't you think he would go to the FBI first instead of tweeting about it? Ryan is a worthless piece of shit."
Now Ryan out for more blood than ever, and he's hoping someone inside of Ripple will help him throw his next punch - he's looking for leakers:
"If you’re a current or former partner, investor, customer, employee of Ripple and you want to share anonymous tips regarding the company’s XRP sales, marketing or general business practices, you can do so with our team. Off the record: anontips@Messari.io"
My thoughts so far:
The data showing Ripple is overvalued may be totally true - but it's tainted by the history of Ryan acting like a man-child on Twitter and openly saying he loves doing things that make Ripple's community hate him, and the fact he's the research company's founder.
A researcher who stands by their findings should simply keep pointing to those findings - demanding them to be disproven. When you're right, winning the argument really is that simple. Everything else is a step in the wrong direction, and he's walked a mile.
Likewise, Ripple's community may have valid points to dispute the report - but those are tainted as well, by them resorting to personal attacks, and if true, making threats.
There's also a disturbingly high number of accounts with anonymous ownership among Ripple's supporters . To Ryan's credit, he's willing to make his claims under his own name, while Ripple's community appears be made up mostly of people using 'screen names' - they won't face consequences for being wrong, they can just move on with a new name.
In closing, because of this I cannot imagine either side being the one to settle this. The only solution would be a neutral, 3rd party of qualified researchers reviewing all of the claims made so far and sharing their findings.
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E-Mail: Ross@GlobalCryptoPress.com Twitter:@RossFM
San Francisco News Desk
