Executive Chairman, Ripple
Ripple Founder Admits Bitcoin NOT Controlled By 50 People!!
Thanks to Chris Larsen for coming on the show to discuss an important issue.
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About Chris Larsen
Chris Larsen, co-founder and executive chairman of Ripple, has been active in discussing the company's progress and the broader cryptocurrency landscape. In October 2025, he announced that Cross River Bank and CBDW had become the first U.S. banks to join the Ripple protocol, describing the development as a step toward demonstrating that distributed ledgers are viable alternatives to correspondent banking. Larsen stated that the strategy involves securing a bank in each key global region to create a multiplier effect, and noted that Ripple has about seven institutional market makers. He has also spoken about the potential for blockchain technology to improve carbon credit markets, arguing that it could make them "radically transparent" and help ensure fair pricing for participants such as farmers in Africa. Larsen has frequently addressed regulatory and reputational challenges facing the crypto industry. He has said that "reputational risk" and a lack of clear rules are holding back adoption, and that the industry needs to work on getting law enforcement and banks comfortable with the technology. He has described the current U.S. regulatory approach as "regulation by enforcement" and advised entrepreneurs not to start crypto businesses in the U.S., pointing to jurisdictions like London, Singapore, and Dubai as having clearer rules. Larsen has also characterized the internet of value as "the final step in globalization," arguing that while data and goods are interoperable globally, money is not. In addition, he has commented on local issues in San Francisco, including homelessness and public safety, and has supported community benefit districts and camera networks in the city.
Transcript (8 segments)
✨ AI-enhanced transcript with speaker attribution
I
Interviewer0:00
So one of the big things that I saw people all day pretty much on Twitter when you guys announced the campaign, they were like, 'Look, maybe Chris is right, maybe they're not, who knows, but why don't they just fork the Bitcoin code and allow the market to decide?' What was the thought process in terms of running the campaign versus just going and forking the code, making any changes that you thought or the rest of the group thought would be applicable, and then allowing the market to decide what was valuable?
C
Chris Larsen0:25
Well, first of all, I'm not that smart and I don't have that much energy anymore, and nobody would trust me to do something like that. So no, this is about one, awareness. Let's get awareness of the problem, the climate problem, the contribution here. And then, yeah, can you inspire, like, come on, let's make a code change. And again, a code change consistent with the values of the Bitcoin community. But come on, I gotta believe whether it's the core developers who come up with this, whether it's a miners association, hey, a smart teenager in Cambodia, right, a math teacher in Ukraine, I mean, the world can do this, right? They can figure this out, but we got to start working on it. That's the only point we're trying to make. I can't do that, but there's brilliant people out there and everybody's dialed into crypto right now, the whole world is, so we can come up with something better.
I
Interviewer1:12
Okay. Now, there was a line in a Bloomberg article that I read, and the line was, 'The campaign believes that about 50 key miners, crypto exchanges, and core developers have the power to change Bitcoin's code.' Now, as you can imagine, this was probably the one thing in all of the articles that I saw people getting the most worked up about. I saw everything from like, 'Who are the 50 people?' to 'How do you not include node operators after we saw the block size wars?' etc. Just maybe to make this valuable for folks who are listening, how do you think the code would be changed? Do you agree with the statement that there's 50 miners and exchanges and people that could do this? Do you think that maybe that was an overstatement? Or just walk me through kind of the process of actually changing it if there was a change that you thought was applicable.
C
Chris Larsen2:00
Yeah, good question. I mean, go back to, you know, there's a book out recently about the block size wars, right? And you look at kind of some of the battles there, I don't know what you might call it, kind of family dispute in 2015, right? I mean, you know, back then, if you look at some of the Medium posts and kind of what we're supporting, it's like 30 to 50 influential people. You're right, they don't have the power to unilaterally do anything, but they're influential, right? So if they got behind something, could they convince other people in the community that we should, hey, we gotta do this, right? You know, how to segue, you know, come about, right, that kind of a thing. So it's an influential thing. Certainly, that can come internally and that would look like a soft fork, can come externally and it could be a hard fork. Who knows? That's, you know, hopefully that doesn't go that way, but these things can be done. You're right, they're not, you know, it's kind of messy, right? But again, if it's in the interest of the community, these things can be done. And change is a good thing sometimes, right? I get it, being conservative is important when you talk about finance, but these are cutting-edge technology. We're at the very beginning, it's like 13 years in, why are we stopping innovating right now? Doesn't make sense. You can do better.
I
Interviewer3:18
As a related point to this, how do you think about the importance of node operators, especially in a decentralized system like Bitcoin, and having the checks and balances between the developers, the miners, the node operators? Like, what the role of the node operators, which obviously they played a crucial role in the outcome of what happened in the block size wars, how do you think about their importance in something like this? Is that the key group to go and convince to get a change pushed through, or what?
C
Chris Larsen3:43
Yeah, I mean, it depends what their role is, right? Are they an exchange or just, you know, somebody with an interest in the network, right? So probably an exchange probably goes along with their customers, right? If Fidelity, for example, say, 'Hey, look, we've got to get on this new code base because this improves the climate situation,' that might be influential to one validator. If it's just a validator, let's say, 'Hey, we're just going to hold the line, we're never going to change,' and that's a different calculus. But it is very important, right? Because they can reject, you know, something that might happen from that core group. You have to convince them, you have to, it's influencing them and motivating them that this is a positive and not something that's going backwards.
I
Interviewer4:28
One of the other themes was basically the conversation that you've had. Have you talked with exchange CEOs? Have you talked with the BlackRocks, the Fidelities, etc.? What has been their reaction if you have spoken to them? Any insights there?
C
Chris Larsen4:43
Yeah, I mean, I don't want to, you know, actually name names, that wouldn't be appropriate, but we have spoken with a number of folks, including miners. And what some miners are doing are being really responsible. You know, you look at Argo and Riot and Giffen, they're doing the right thing with the renewables. The problem is the code doesn't say anything about renewables, right? The code just says, 'Find cheap energy.' Right? So the Saudis say, 'We're getting into mining tomorrow,' all those taxes, they'll have all the mining going on in Texas move over to Saudi Arabia, and it'd be fossil fuels and it'd be super cheap, right? So I mean, some people get it right and have said that. But I get it, this is a controversial thing, it's a big step. But look, we're in uncharted waters here with climate crisis and we got to be fighting this thing on every single front, and it's one of the fronts.