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Kraken recently ruffled the feathers of a myriad of XRP supporters by disregarding the apparent distinction between XRP and Ripple…
The ruffling started after Kraken enabled margin trading for XRP, a seemingly positive move, and the kind of news you would expect a group calling themselves “XRP Army”, would take kindly to:
We have enabled margin trading for Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and Ripple (XRP)! The addition expands our margin offering to 8 assets. Read more on our blog: https://t.co/DSBaMBdOR7
— Kraken Exchange (@krakenfx) December 29, 2018
However, it wasn’t the announcement of margin trading that stirred up XRP aficionados but rather simple semantics.
It seems the largest exchange in the world, didn’t make the proper distinction between Ripple, the protocol, and XRP, the cryptocurrency; a mistake most would be forgiven for making. Not the Kraken.
This led to an en masse mockery of the exchange:
Where can I buy these Ripple shares?
— Nohashpower (@Crytp1) December 29, 2018
Awesome I have just brought Ripple shares from your trading interface, cant wait for when they IPO or we get future dividends so exciting!!! thanks @krakenfx
— Nohashpower (@Crytp1) December 29, 2018
Do you have any @Coil (XRP) in stock?
— Tiffany Hayden (@haydentiff) December 29, 2018
Rather than backing down and changing the ticker from Ripple (XRP) to simply XRP the Kraken decided to call out the XRP Army…
Dear XRP Army, Ripple is (and was first) a payment protocol whose native currency is XRP. You could suggest the eponymous company change its name (again) to avoid ambiguity. The convention is , like: Ripple XRP, Ethereum ether, Bitcoin bitcoin, etc. 💙
— Kraken Exchange (@krakenfx) December 29, 2018
This explanation wasn’t enough for some who insisted they change the listing:
It's not and it is listed as XRP. Ripple XRP, to be specific.
— Kraken Exchange (@krakenfx) December 29, 2018
Kraken still didn’t give in, and instead decided to have their turn at a bit of teasing:
not to be confused with Nipple (XRP)
— Kraken Exchange (@krakenfx) December 29, 2018
Nipple has been stuck with the review committee for years. I enquire but every time it's "needs further inspection". Don't know what's going on there but you'll have to use Local Nipples for the time being. I hear you need to be accredited though.
— Kraken Exchange (@krakenfx) December 30, 2018
Areolas aside this brought back the age-old argument of whether or not XRP is really decentralized. Ripple (the company), stands by their assertion that XRP is completely separated from the firm despite their sizable holdings in XRP and controversy surrounding its creation.
“The XRP Ledger cannot be owned by any single entity—it exists independent of any one person or business, including Ripple.” States Ripple’s official website.
Read more: Kraken launches Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and Ripple (XRP) margin trading; XRP the base: Binance adds XRP as a base pair;