Ripple Could Burn Their XRP Right Now: Former Executive

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Former Director of Developer Relations at Ripple Matt Hamilton has weighed in on the debate regarding the fate of Ripple’s XRP holdings if the company is required to dispose of them. Hamilton suggested that Ripple could render their entire future escrow funds inaccessible to even themselves by disabling the master key on the destination account, thus making them inoperable.

The suggestion was made in response to concerns raised by members of the XRP community about the possibility of Ripple pouring tens of billions of XRP into the market if the company was required to get rid of the tokens stored in numerous escrow accounts. The community debated whether it would be possible to burn the tokens, but it became clear that only XRPL validators could order XRP to be burned.

Hamilton’s proposal offers an alternative solution that could prevent Ripple from flooding the market with XRP. By disabling the master key on the destination account, Ripple could render the funds released from escrow inaccessible to anyone. This would effectively “burn” the tokens and ensure that they could not be used by Ripple or anyone else.

The debate erupted from the question if Ripple could influence the validators to comply with a court order. Some community members argued that the judge could not make a ruling based on something that Ripple was dependent on convincing others to do, while others believed that the validators would not be bound by any order without being heard.

The ongoing debate highlights the challenges faced by crypto companies as they blindly navigate the regulatory landscape and seek to balance the interests of investors, regulators and the broader community.