Ripple CTO David Schwartz struggles to understand Dr. Craig Wright

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Recently, Bitcoin inventor Dr. Craig Wright was involved in a heated debate with Ripple CTO David Schwartz. Lots of tweets have been fired since.

The core problem of this interaction was not personal animosity but a lack of education from the Ripple CTO. As far as I can tell, the discussion started with this tweet:

Bitcoin cannot ever be adopted by institutional investors until the system is able to be recovered under a legal court order.

— Dr Craig S Wright (@Dr_CSWright) December 24, 2022

Bitcoin and property rights: “There is nothing new under the sun.”

What Dr. Wright is referring to is the fact that digital assets can be recovered. Not only can they be recovered, they will be recovered, and they have to be able to be recovered.

That should be of interest to Ripple CTO David Schwartz, too. Digital assets are—like all other assets—property of someone. So we are talking about property rights here, nothing special about that. Thanks to property rights, stolen or lost property can legally be returned to the rightful owner. How does that work with Bitcoin? See here.

If Ripple takes digital assets and electronic cash seriously, Ripple’s CTO should have agreed with Dr. Wright. However, David Schwartz seems to see problems with different jurisdictions. Concerning property rights, if more than one jurisdiction is involved, recovery can be difficult—no doubt.

The jurisdictional hassle is solvable, though. Court orders from one jurisdiction are enforceable in another. It my take a while, but it works. Why does it work? Because all relevant jurisdictions are familiar with property rights. The details of property rights are not the same in all jurisdictions, but the concept is.

Ripple’s CTO may have a point implying that it would not be easy to recover digital assets through different jurisdictions involved. Nobody said it was as effortless as posting a tweet.

However, the blockchain allows for the localization of lost or stolen property. That is a key point that David Schwartz seems to underestimate. While with other stolen or lost property, one usually does not know where it currently is—the opposite goes for Bitcoin, though. We know exactly where all Bitcoins are. Check for yourself on any Bitcoin blockchain explorer.

Bitcoin is an informational commodity, but what is Ripple about?

The “real discussion” between Dr. Wright and the Ripple CTO had another angle. Dr. Wright pointed out that institutional investors would not touch Bitcoin unless the recovery question is answered. Ripple’s CTO wondered whether institutional investors would be a target group for digital cash.

That is interesting. Bitcoin is not solely cash, it is complex cash and a commodity—if we are talking about the original Bitcoin SV, the BSV blockchain.

Let us see, are institutional investors interested in commodities? Do they own gold as part of their portfolios? Do they own shares in companies that produce commodities?

That concept of Bitcoin as a commodity may sound new to the ears of Ripple’s CTO. He seems to be focused on the cash quality of Bitcoin too much. He should instead focus on the Commodity—we have reported on that already.

CoinGeek even published a remarkable article from equity analyst John Pitts, in which he stated:

Money is ALWAYS a commodity, an asset, a proof of work

In the BSV blockchain space, we try to understand the qualities of Bitcoin and digital assets aside from price action and Ponzi schemes. I did not write “try” for no reason. We are not done discovering Bitcoin yet, but we are as close as any digital asset community can get. For educational purposes, I recommend Ripple CTO David Schwartz to read the following:

• Craig Wright on Bitcoin, gold standard, and cash
• Bitcoin vs. USDC, as well as Bitcoin and CBDC
• Why Bitcoin’s supply is limited (not the reason you think!)
• George Gilder said: Bitcoin SV is the epitome of information economy

Ripple CTO able to join an academic discussion on Bitcoin, or keeps tweeting?

We welcome the Ripple CTO to join us in that quest to understand Bitcoin, digital assets, electronic cash, and money. Furthermore, Ripple is probably threatened by the settlement capabilities of the BSV blockchain—see settlements with Bitcoin.

Dr. Wright is writing about Bitcoin on an academic level that may not perfectly fit into Twitter. However, last time I checked, Dr. Wright had 13.000 followers. Now he is at 18.000, and by the time you read this article, it may very well be higher. Interest is growing in Dr. Wright—I wonder why.

The Ripple CTO and Dr. Wright should take an hour to discuss the above in a video session. However, usually “crypto heroes” on Twitter try to avoid real conversations with Dr. Wright—I wonder why.

In his article Human Rights and Property, Dr. Wright explains:

Freedom lies at the core of what Bitcoin, the blockchain is about. My team and I have been working for several years now on solutions to the issue of property. In the coming months, we will be releasing several papers and solutions to what we see is the problem with the state of the financial system, property, and risk transfer.

(…)

Such a world involves ensuring that we have the right to save and control our futures without fearing predation. The right to a future without loss caused by theft. The right to live silently if we so choose. The right to invest and make a better world and not be held in contempt for doing so.

Dr. Wright is not new to Bitcoin, he created it. The idea of Bitcoin started in 1998. Since then, Dr. Wright has worked relentlessly to solve the electronic cash puzzle. Show some respect for Satoshi Nakamoto – or at least get out of the way.