An executive for San Francisco-based startup Ripple has taken aim at Facebook’s digital currency libra, calling the project a “walled garden” in reference to it being a closed system. 

Ripple Exec Weighs in on Libra

Marcus Treacher, senior vice president of customer success at Ripple, said in an interview with CNBC that libra will constitute a closed system and called it a big problem for the digital currency. 

Closed systems, in comparison to open source decentralized crypto-assets, have been a stigma in the tech community for major platforms such as Facebook and Apple, who retain complete control over their applications. 

Treacher further explained to CNBC that Ripple, and its products, are not a walled garden,

Yes it’s a network, but it has no perimeter. It connects with all of the players that want to use the technology.

Despite seemingly diminishing libra for being closed-source, Treacher said that it was ultimately a “really good thing,” for a tech giant such as Facebook to enter the space of digital assets. The Ripple exec’s comments mirror those of ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin and Joe Lubin, who said earlier in the month that they welcome collaboration with libra. 

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