Former Ripple CTO, Stefan Thomas, recently opened up about the tribalism he encountered from friends he had worked on similar cryptocurrency projects with. His friends suddenly stopped interacting with him when he worked on $XRP while they were working on Bitcoin.
In recent years, the cryptocurrency niche has moved from ideas that can improve all cryptocurrency projects to questions like, “how can we be better than this other project”?. Such a question is rooted in cryptocurrency tribalism.
This set of affairs between Bitcoin and Ripple is not new. The Ripple community has been found to chastise Bitcoin, claiming that $XRP is quicker and transactions are more cost-effective. In opposition, the Bitcoin community pointed out problems associated with centralization, on which $XRP runs, pointing out that the presence of central authority has placed them in escrow.
The altercation between different platforms influences users’ interests and trading volumes. The advantages and disadvantages pointed out can effectively dampen interest. One platform loses investors while the other gains.
Tribalism is common now, and berating rival projects is core to this issue. Hence, every platform strives to improve its value, and they withhold information that can prove positive for the general web technology platform.
Ripple CEO, Brad Garlinghouse, mentioned tribalism as the issue holding back an entire $2 trillion market. This number shows how detrimental tribalism is to the cryptocurrency industry.
Stefan Thomas, in the year 2019, mentioned that no cryptocurrency project wins as web technologies cannot serve every use case the best. That is still in effect today. No matter how influential tribalism is on the success of specific crypto projects, it will never satisfy the needs of every investor.
With no ideal cryptocurrency, investors should steer clear of tribalism and focus on protocols that support their interests.
