The Best Bits | Brad Garlinghouse & Pompliano Interview

After all the speculation and the hype, the Pompliano interview is now released for non-subscribers, a great interview and it was worth the wait.

Anthony Pompliano worked at Facebook and Snapchat, now he runs his own crypto start-up Morgan Creek Capital and hardcore loves Bitcoin.

Pomp – I thought we would do this interview to answer a lot of questions from the detractors, the haters. So you must be the commander of the XRP Army!?

Brad – And the lovers! I don’t consider myself the commander of the XRP army, there are few who might contend for that title (David Schwartz?!) but I won’t!

From the outset, it’s clear Brad and Pomp have met previously, Brad spoke candidly about AOL, Yahoo, and the peanut butter manifesto.

Brad discussed how he found blockchain tech, Bitcoin and eventually Ripple, he invested in Bitcoin in 2012 and realized it could be improved.

I decided I would be an UBER driver, I thought that would be fun! One day a recruiter I know called me and explained a bit about Ripple & what it stood for see if I was interested. I told him it wasn’t for me initailly but after a lot more calls and persuation I decided to give it a go

Brad Garlinghouse

As Ripple CCO in 2015, he realized the company had to streamline operations to be successful and they began targetting global payments.

As he says a number of times in the interview and quoting Steve Jobs ” I wanted to put a dent in the Universe”, how very apt…

When asked how well XRP and Ripple are doing and will they be further adopted, Brad responded by mentioning the recent SIBOS event.

Brad cleverly said that when someone asked a major bank exec if they would work with Ripple, they said many of their partners already do…

We were at Sibos, meeting with a bank we don’t work with today, big transaction correspondent bank (SWIFT) we were sitting down and one of the guys said its become a question of not if we are going to work with Ripple its when because 26 of our correspondents are working with Ripple

Brad G

It is clear from Brad’s recent body language, confidence and the words he has been using in interviews, something huge brewing and he is on fire.

Other than that Brad was asked about Escrow sales during 2019 and some specific numbers to paint a picture of exactly how many XRP get sold.

One way we sell XRP is over the counter, institutions come to us the want exposure to XRP and rather than go to the markets they will come to us. We have all but stopped the OTC sales, we just tell them to go to market nowadays. I think Q1 was around 170 million USD in over the counter XRP sales, Q2 was around 250 MILLION usd, Q3  will be dramatically lower

Brad Garlinghouse

At the end, Brad was asked if he believes in aliens, “For Sure, theres just too many things out there, its the law of large numbers” – amazing! 

We like large numbers, like the $5 Trillion in payments that SWIFT deals with every day, we want those numbers Brad…

Check it out in full yourself and save time with the Interview itinerary below! Note self, read SNOW CRASH – thanks, Brad.

Show Overview — We Discuss:

• Brad’s time as SVP at Yahoo running Communications Division and President of Consumer Applications at AOL [1:10];

• His first time being introduced to crypto, blockchain, and Bitcoin [6:00];

• His brief stint as an Uber driver and the inbound recruiting call he received that began his journey at Ripple [7:30];

• The difference between Ripple and XRP, the utility of both, and how he responds when someone asks: “what does Ripple do?”  [11:45];

• The three components of RippleNet – xCurrent, xRapid, and xVia – and how they leverage Ripple’s software and the XRP ledger [15:10];

• The relationship between security and speed: the tradeoff between increasing speed and giving up security. Comparing Bitcoin vs. XRP [21:20];

• Closer look into how xRapid (on demand liquidity) leverages the XRP ledger to provide a faster and lower-cost payment system for cross-border transactions [28:00];

• The challenge surrounding interoperability, liquidity, and utility of blockchain systems and digital assets [37:30];

• Law enforcement and governance: playing within the rules and regulations, and the threat of cryptocurrency on a nation’s sovereignty [43:00];

• Devil’s advocate: Brad’s take on XRP sales, revenue, and OTC trading. Addressing the detractors and a clear look at the structure of Ripple’s ecosystem [52:05];

• Understanding the structure of Ripple’s escrow system and controlling the circulating supply of XRP [56:25];

• Calculating market cap, inflation rate, and identifying misleading data. The importance of restricted selling agreements [1:08:00];

• The next step for Ripple: expanding to new verticals and how Brad thinks Ripple will shape the future of the financial technology [1:11:00];

• The Ripple community and the origin of the XRP army [1:16:15];

• Elephants in the Room: Is XRP a security? EOS settlement with SEC and the impacts of a settlement on the business [1:18:45];

• Brad’s favorite book and why he thinks aliens are real [1:22:40];

• Pomp responds to how “this conversation has changed his view on Ripple and XRP” [1:23:45]; 

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