Ripple Freeze feature / Centralization Clarity

[khomsky 58]

A reddit user brought up an interesting point. I am hoping someone with more knowledge of Ripples freeze future can elaborate to discredit the claims that people make about Ripple being centralized. I have already read Brad's answer on quora and articles on ripple insight.

https://www.quora.com/Why-is-Ripple-centralized
https://ripple.com/insights/how-we-are-further-decentralizing-the-ripple-consensus-ledger-rcl-to-bolster-robustness-for-enterprise-use/

If ripple isn't a centralized entity, how were they able to stop Jed from dumping his XRP holdings? I know he signed an agreement, but what if he said F the agreement, sold and then dealt with the legal issues after.
 

[XRPisVELOCITY 11,347]

 

[khomsky 58]

closed.

Edited January 8, 2018 by khomsky

[MintDice 0]

Only the gateways can be used to properly freeze assets, similar to any other currency on any other exchange?

[PunishmentOfLuxury 1,654]

1 minute ago, MintDice said:

Only the gateways can be used to properly freeze assets, similar to any other currency on any other exchange?

Gateways can freeze their own IOUs on the XRPL. Eg Bitstamp could freeze USD.Bitstamp IOUs, but no one else's. XRP cannot be frozen by anyone, even Ripple Inc.

[Guest]

It's interesting isn't it,  that no amount of truth ever puts this to bed.  

Its also interesting that exchanges issuing their iou's on all the various coin types that people 'hold' there,  can decide at any time to freeze any of these coins including the big fella BTC,  but only XRP ever gets a mention in the Freeze FUD.  

XRP CAN NOT BE FROZEN.  

(Sorry for raising my voice...    )

However, exchanges can freeze withdrawals on any damn thing they like at any time and fight it out in the courts afterward.  This is but one of the risks of 'holding' your coins on an exchange.  

On the other hand that would be a bad move and I imagine it would generally only happen in the event of bankruptcy which is another of the risks of 'holding' on the exchange.  

[Apollo 1,399]

On 1/8/2018 at 7:58 AM, khomsky said:

 I know he signed an agreement, but what if he said F the agreement, sold and then dealt with the legal issues after.

 

This is exactly what happened. Jed sold more than he agreed to. So, Ripple sued Jed and brought/ threatened legal action against  Bitstamp if they did not freeze Jed's account. Bitstamp then froze Jed's account and filed a motion with the court asking the court what they should do. The case then settled. 

This is exactly the process I would like exchanges to follow. If someone stole your money and put it on Bitstamp (which is more or less equivalent to what Jed did) you would want Bitstamp to follow this same process and follow a court with proper jurisdiction. In my opinion, the idea that we should want financial institutions or exchanges outside the reach of the courts is generally ill-considered and does not leave any method by which a wronged party can recover their loss. 

Ripple had no special power in this case (outside of good lawyers) which caused Jed's funds to be frozen. If anyone else brings similar valid legal demands to Bitstamp I expect they will do the same thing in the future. 

[RippleHerToShreds 164]

4 hours ago, Apollo said:

If anyone else brings similar valid legal demands to Bitstamp I expect they will do the same thing in the future. 

Well.....it was argued Bitstamp are in bed with Ripple, so the process was unfair/biased, IIRC.

So aside from you and I not having the same clout with Bitstamp, we probably wouldn't have the same quality of legal representation either!