The AI chatbot called ChatGPT is currently making waves on the internet. With a little input, the chatbot generates impressive pieces of text. This time, the chatbot produced a story stating that Ripple can secretly control its own blockchain.
What does this mean?
If the story is correct, it means that Ripple Labs can control the entire XRP Ledger (XRPL). In a thread on Twitter, Stefan Huber shares a series of questions he asked the artificial intelligence. The ChatGPT bot suggested that while humans can participate in the blockchain, Ripple has ultimate control over XRPL.
Then Huber asked how this is possible without the consensus of all participants in the network and the computer code being public. To that, the chatbot replied that Ripple “has capabilities that are not fully contained in the publicly available source code of the protocol.”
At one point, the AI even says that “the ultimate decision-making power” for XRPL “still rests with Ripple Labs.” That would mean that the company can make changes, even if they don’t have the support of the majority of the participants in the network. It also contrasted XRPL with Bitcoin, which the AI believes is fully decentralized.
Ripple CTO responds
It didn’t take long for Ripple CTO David Schwartz to respond to the chatbot’s accusations. “If the final argument is that Ripple Labs ‘might’ have a secret way of controlling the XRP Ledger, then why not put forward the argument that Ripple Labs ‘might’ have a secret way of controlling the Bitcoin blockchain?” Thus, a little frustrated Schwartz.
Incidentally, there is also a contradiction in the bot’s story: “The main reason for using a database like the XRP Ledger is to enable safe and efficient transactions, without the need for a centralized authority.” That goes completely against the statement that Ripple Labs has the power to control the database.