China has been the dominant country as far as Bitcoin mining is concerned. The situation is a cause for concern among some in the Trump administration.
There are speculations in recent weeks that the administration is trying to figure out what it really means for China to be in control of 70 percent of all bitcoins mined globally.
A Ripple Lab executive recently stated that the US administration has shown interest in Ripple’s digital currency known as XRP. The reason is obvious; the need may yet arise to have an alternative to Bitcoin, the premier digital currency that is tending towards Chinese dominance.
Bitcoin miners in the country have long taken advantage of the availability of cheap electricity to dominate mining. This is the process by which bitcoins are produced through a complex process of confirmation of transactions on the network.
The way Bitcoin was designed, it takes high computing power also known as hashrate to win the race of confirmation of the transaction and add the confirmed transaction to the blockchain.
Bitmain is the Main Bitcoin Mining Giant
Bitmain, the Chinese mining giant has dominated the Bitcoin mining industry as it does not just control the largest mining pools but it has been a force to reckon with in the manufacture of mining hardware.
Cory Johnson, the Ripple Lab’s chief strategist who spoke during an interview with Breaker, a cryptocurrency focused media outlet said,
“The White House in particular seems to be thinking about what it means to have 80% of bitcoin mining taking place in China and a majority of ether mining taking place in China,”
“When you look at XRP, there is no mining, so from a foreign-control aspect or from an environmental aspect, XRP is a very different beast. And in conversations we’ve had with the administration, they seem to get that and think that might matter.”
A Good Month for XRP
Ripple had a good month in September with the XRP value appreciating more than 20 percent. The digital currency has been enjoying some goodwill especially from financial institutions that have been leveraging its platform for cross-border remittance services.
The strength of the coin has been the ease with which conventional banks have been integrated with it for faster service delivery.
During the Ripple Swell event at San Francisco, the former US president, Bill Clinton delivered the keynote address. He highlighted the possibilities inherent in the Distributed Ledger Technology also known as Blockchain.
It is now apparent that with China’s dominant of Bitcoin and Ethereum mining, the next coin that could be said to be considered based on capitalization for adoption is Ripple which is controlled by Ripple Labs.
The company is holding 60 percent of the XRP token. This has caused critics to decry its centralized nature. The company is not deterred however.
“When I started to meet with people in government and regulators, I had very low expectations,”
Johnson added.
“I have been truly amazed at the open-mindedness, number one. And number two, the smart questions, sometimes even tough questions. There’s clearly a lot of homework going on.”
It is apparent that the Ripple Labs work may pay off if the speculations by Cory turn out true. The company would have morphed from an entity hunting for its first client years ago to one that has the backing of a government.
