Garlinghouse: Crypto Beats Gold in Speed and Efficiency
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse compared traditional gold logistics to cryptocurrency transfers in a recent social media post. He highlighted the Dutch central bank's $11 billion, months-long operation to move physical gold from New York and Ottawa to London as an example of outdated financial infrastructure.
The transfer involved approximately 86 tons of gold and took several months to complete. Garlinghouse contrasted this with the development of cryptocurrency since 2013, noting that it has grown from a $1.5 billion experiment to a multitrillion-dollar asset class supported by financial infrastructure and market liquidity.
Garlinghouse argued that central banks still rely on outdated methods for transferring value, whereas cryptocurrencies can facilitate instant, secure, and low-cost transactions across the globe. He emphasized that this is an ideal use case for cryptocurrency - storing and moving value instantly, securely, around the world at little to no cost.