Brad Garlinghouse: Ripple aims to be the Amazon of crypto

Ripple aims to go beyond cross-border payments and “to become the Amazon in the world of cryptocurrencies.” In an interview with the Financial Times, CEO Brad Garlinghouse said.

“Amazon started as a bookseller; we started with payments. In two years you will see that Ripple is to payments what Amazon is to books,” Garlinghouse said.

Over the past five years, Ripple has focused on promoting the XRP token. Garlinghouse signaled that he intends to reduce the company’s reliance on regular coin Sales.

“We are capitalists. We have a lot of XRP. Am I concerned about its trajectory? Undoubtedly,” he added.

Ethan Beard, Ripple’s chief developer, said the company plans to move from “issuing checks to writing code.” In other words, to push the development of new applications on the Ripple network.

The fintech startup has already begun building a developer toolkit. It is aimed at broadening the use cases for the technology. It is expected that, with this, Ripple will take on some of Amazon’s breadth in its range of product categories.

Garlinghouse noted that the decision to create a developer toolkit was an expansion of the company’s strategy, not a change.

Previously, the company focused on grants through its Xpring foundation. According to media reports, by the end of 2019 Ripple invested more than $500 million in various applications, predominantly in XRP. Of these, $260 million went to Coil, a platform for monetising web content, which after a year had yet to gain significant traction. Other projects have not fared much better.

The Financial Times notes that Ripple’s chosen direction remains more aspirational than a credible means of overcoming the company’s current growth ceiling. The company still lacks a popular app with broad reach that could attract other services.

Some analysts say that the focus on traditional financial institutions also constrains the space for manoeuvre.

“In the crypto world they are hated for trying to cosy up to banks,” said TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington.

Earlier, Brad Garlinghouse signalled the possibility of an IPO. The execution of these plans could be hindered by the intention of two Ripple investors to exit their stakes entirely. As сообщалось, they are prepared to sell them at a 30-40% discount.

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