A Stanford University student has highlighted a possible conflict of interest, alleging that Stanford Graduate School of Business professor Dr. Susan Athey may have used her position at the university to plug the Ripple protocol and associated cryptocurrency (XRP) – while also sitting on Ripple Labs’ Board of Directors since 2014.
Bitcoin Bashing
The claim is a complex one and needs unpacking. The student, Conner Brown, came out publically about a week ago with his claims that Athey inaccurately described the Bitcoin protocol and network, and based on that inaccurate description made unfounded criticisms of Bitcoin during a lecture. The lecture seems to have taken place more than a month ago, according to Brown’s comments.
Brown, who has written an open letter to Stanford regarding the incident, outlined arguments against what he sees as false claims.
To wit, he says Brown inaccurately described Bitcoin’s consensus protocol; overstated the problem of Bitcoin mining centralization; overstated the threat of a 51% attack on the Bitcoin network; and overstated the Bitcoin network’s environmental impact.
The upshot of Brown’s criticisms, however, are not just that Bitcoin was misrepresented in the lecture hall of an elite US university – but that Ripple was presented to students as a solution to Bitcoin’s (misrepresented and poorly framed) problems.
Hey-I was a guest lecturer in this class with Ripple role disclosed, not the professor; Conner never contacted me or shared this letter with me; his description of my lecture is a caricature, and I disagree with his characterizations of the lecture.
— Susan Athey (@Susan_Athey) February 24, 2019
Athey’s Response and Dialog
Dr. Athey quickly responded to Brown’s complaints on Twitter, emphasizing for the public that she was a guest lecturer of the class, not its professor; and that her role as a Ripple director was emphasized at length during the class introduction.
In this specific regard, she commented:
Five minute verbal introduction discussing my background in the space- no way to miss it!
— Susan Athey (@Susan_Athey) February 24, 2019
The class lecture slides, which are posted here, do clearly include a pro-Ripple bias.
Furthermore, Athey in her endorsement of Ripple presented the case of Caullix, a Mexican remittance company that she claimed used Ripple’s xRapid backend technology to process payments. This material can be seen in the presented class slides.
Ripple unequivocally tweeted about Caullix’s planned usage of their technology back in October 2018 – but Brown claims to have called the company, and was told that they did not in fact use Ripple’s tech. Brown also claims to have recorded this call, but no audio file is presently forthcoming.
xRapid is going into commercial production. @mercury_fx_ltd, @Cuallix and Catalyst Corporate Federal Credit Union will be the first to make on-demand cross-border payments on RippleNet using #XRP. https://t.co/dQ02J4vdBl
— Ripple (@Ripple) October 1, 2018
Takeaways
It seems clear enough that a portion of Dr. Athey’s lecture was indeed dedicated to plugging Ripple and its xRapid technology. Athey seems to excuse this behavior as legitimate, citing her large and obvious disclaimer at the beginning of her lecture that she was affiliated with the blockchain company. Whether or not her choice of forum for this purpose was in fact legitimate, is open to debate and opinion.
And although Athey’s class slides do not unduly defame Bitcoin and its tech, if Brown is to be believed about the verbal statements made during the lecture, Athey’s criticisms of Bitcoin do seem specious and half-baked.
Here are my slides. Unlike what you might think from Conner's post, the lecture and slides are very high level, intuitive, as this was MBA class with no background in blockchain. Just trying to give the big picture as well as some of the challenges. https://t.co/fI5bQ9HxKn
— Susan Athey (@Susan_Athey) February 24, 2019
