Matt Hamilton, former director of Ripple Labs' Developer Relations, claims that XRP Ledger (XRPL) uses a similar hash to Bitcoin (BTC). Hamilton said this in a community debate among Bitcoin maximalists who believe that coins are the ultimate decentralized digital currency.
Why XRPL is a blockchain
In an X's post, Lightspark CEO and Bitcoin supporter David Marcus argued that BTC has an unchanging concept. According to Marcus, individuals cannot replicate Bitcoin through forking.
In response, Hamilton argued that Bitcoin is just one stage of the evolution of money. He further noted that new technologies like XRP could address Bitcoin restrictions.
Why are you continuing with Brad Garlinghouse?
And why do you think XRP ledgers are not blockchain? Transactions are grouped into blocks, each block creating a created and immutable record containing a hash of the previous block. Use the same block hash and key…
– Matt Hamilton (@hammertoe) September 29, 2025
However, Marcus opposed Hamilton. He argued that other cryptocurrencies sacrifice decentralization for flexibility and reduce credibility as neutral digital money.
Hamilton rebutted Marcus, noting that after the next two hullings, it would be unrealistic for miners to stay in the market. Marcus dismissed the concerns and said that rising BTC prices, energy costs and fees from the L2 network will lead to new regions and sovereign states participating in mining.
Still, Hamilton argued that XRP is more decentralized because XRP can run nodes like Bitcoin. He added that when X users discussed it differently, it was blockchain.
Hamilton emphasized that transactions are grouped into blocks. Each block contains a hash of the previous block, creating immutable records and using encryption techniques similar to Bitcoin.
Recent XRPL Updates
Recent debate on decentralization follows a recent update to the XRP ledger. As U.Today previously reported, XRPL issued major migration alerts For validators.
Validators that the XRP Ledger node currently trusts have been prompted to migrate UNLs exposed by the old XRPL Foundation to the new configuration. They are expected to make some changes to the rippled up configuration.
If the switch does not fail, it may stop loading XRPL Foundation's trusted Balidators list from September 30, 2025.
Another recent update on XRPL is Activating 3 modifications “fixammmv1_3”, “fixenforcenfotokentrustlinev2” and “fixpaychancancelaafter”. These fixes indicate that the network considers network improvements as a priority.
Meanwhile, XRPL is recently We experienced a new boost in liquidity. Defillama data shows that the total value of XRP locked (TVL) has risen beyond $90 million to $133.7 million.
The rise suggested an increase in protocol engagement from institutional owners. It also suggests that these corporate owners view XRPL as a reliable, low-cost blockchain for crypto space.
