Congressman says XRP, ETH, and BTC are actual cryptocurrencies, not Libra

At Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's Senate testimony, Republican congressman Ted Budd of North Carolina said that Bitcoin, Ethereum, and XRP are actual cryptocurrencies, while Libra isn't.

By "Actual" cryptocurrencies, Congressman Budd likely meant that unlike the three assets, Libra is not open-sourced and permissionless.

"It's crucial that members of this committee be able to differentiate between Libra, which is really not a cryptocurrency and actual cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and XRP, before we discuss draft legislation. Many of the proposals would stifle financial innovation and if we're to remain as a world leader in financial technology, it's vital that this committee not embrace reactionary laws against cryptocurrencies."

XRP, ETH, and BTC: What makes them real cryptocurrencies?

Although there have been some questions surrounding the extent to which XRP is open-source and decentralized, the paper of Rippled, the server software that powers the XRP Ledger, says that Rippled itself is open-source under the permissive ISC open-source license.

"The server software that powers the XRP Ledger is called rippled and is available in this repository under the permissive ISC open-source license. The rippled server is written primarily in C++ and runs on a variety of platforms."

A court case is still pending to conclusively determine whether XRP is a security or not in the U.S., and the case is unlikely to be resolved in the short term.

"Earlier today Rep Ted Budd emphasized the importance of distinguishing between Libra and actual digital assets like XRP, BTC and ETH. He provided an excellent reminder: the crypto industry should not be painted with one broad brush."

Following the 11-hour testimony, it was clear that many members of Congress do not have the confidence in Facebook to lead the development and distribution of Libra, which led Zuckerberg to state that Facebook may leave the Libra association if the U.S. government does not approve of the project.

Whether the growing scrutiny on Libra and Facebook would grow the confidence of investors towards the long term trend of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and XRP remains to be seen.