These Ripple Patents Show Why XRP Can’t Be Copied Or Replicated
Questions round whether or not XRP might be copied usually concentrate on open-source code and blockchain forks, however a current rationalization shared by an XRP group member factors consideration to one thing deeper.
His feedback are targeted on Ripple’s patented payment architecture and the way XRP’s actual perform is protected not simply by community results and liquidity however by mental property that governs how worth truly strikes throughout monetary methods.
XRP Is Legally Protected By Patents
The XRP group member, often called Wilberforce Theophilus, pointed to U.S. Patent No. 10,902,416 as a motive why XRP can’t be recreated by one other cryptocurrency. This patent covers a system for settling cross-border funds utilizing a digital asset as a bridge between totally different currencies and establishments.
The focus is on the total settlement course of that removes the necessity for pre-funded accounts and reduces value and time. The patented circulation describes how liquidity is sourced, exchanged, and settled utilizing XRP. With this patent, it implies that no cryptocurrency can carry out this perform with out XRP.
The second patent, U.S. Patent No. 11,998,003, builds on Ripple’s earlier designs and is designed to cowl superior interoperability between totally different ledgers and cost networks. This safety applies to how disparate methods are linked collectively right into a single cost circulation that may function throughout jurisdictions and infrastructures.
According to Wilberforce’s rationalization, that is the place replication turns into inconceivable in apply. Even if one other mission designs a quick blockchain, it can not copy Ripple’s precise structure for connecting banks, cost suppliers, and blockchains with XRP embedded because the settlement medium. That structure is legally protected.
Why Copying The Code Is Not The Same As Copying XRP
The patents talked about above are only some from the overall variety of patents held by Ripple Labs, XRP’s mother or father firm. As it stands, Ripple Labs holds approximately 39 patents globally, out of which 18 have been granted.
At a floor stage, elements of the XRP Ledger are open supply, which implies builders can examine the code and even fork it to create similar-looking networks. This has led to assumptions that XRP itself might be simply replicated.
A staff might replicate the consensus mechanism, transaction velocity, and charge construction and even difficulty a brand new token that capabilities nearly identically on paper. In that slender technical sense, then XRP might be copied. However, XRP’s value does not come from the code alone.
XRP’s value can be attributed to over a decade of reside operation, deep trade liquidity throughout jurisdictions, and its affiliation with Ripple, which has spent years constructing relationships with banks, cost suppliers, regulators, and establishments.
The software program defines how transactions are processed on a ledger, however it does not define the legally protected system that makes use of XRP as a bridge asset between monetary establishments. Ripple, for one, is working fervently to place XRP because the bridge asset, with a recent example being the growth into the Middle East with a partnership with Riyad Bank.
