ChatGPT chatbot alleges Ripple Labs can control XRPL

An artificial intelligence-based Chat Bot alleged that the backend team of Ripple Labs can control the network of XRP.

XRP Ledger (XRPL) is a crypto network, which was developed by Ripple Labs. Ripple is a San Francisco-based Fintech company that provides cross-border payment services for small & big businesses. The source code of XRPL is available to the public and devs claim XRPL is a decentralized blockchain network but critics claim that XRPL is highly centralized because Ripple Labs is holding a significant contribution to Ripple’s staking as an SPO.

On 3 December, Stefan Huber started a Twitter thread that includes replies to messages from the ChatGPT chatbot over the decentralized & centralized nature of XRPL.

In the shared screenshots of the Chatbot replies, ChatGPT claimed that XRPL’s open-source code available to the public is ok and also people can participate in the governance of this blockchain network but still Ripple Labs can control the network.

ChatBot indirectly claimed that the full open source code of XRPL is not available to the public and that is the point where RippleLabs may control the network operations fully.

On 5 December, Davi Schwartz, Chief technology officer at Ripple, responded to these allegations and said that if Ripple Labs can control the XRPL via a hidden code that is not publicly available then surely Ripple Labs can control the Bitcoin network via a secret source code.

If it’s final argument is that Ripple Labs “may have” some secret way to control the XRP Ledger that cannot be determined from the public code, why not argue that Ripple Labs “may have” some secret way to control the bitcoin blockchain that cannot be determined from the code?

— David “JoelKatz” Schwartz (@JoelKatz) December 5, 2022

Ripple vs SEC

At present, Ripple labs already is under legal hurdles because of a lawsuit filed by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

In December 2020, The SEC agency filed a lawsuit against Ripple labs and claimed that the nature of the XRP token is fully similar to Securities assets, so the failure of Ripple to register with the SEC for the XRP security is a violation of securities laws.