Amid the prolonged wait by the crypto community for the final ruling regarding the ongoing law battle between Ripple and the US SEC, the blockchain firm has scored another significant victory over the regulator. The presiding judge has reportedly denied the commission’s request to seal the famous Hinman document from the ongoing case.
Ripple Scores Major Win Over SEC
District Judge Analisa Torres rejected the commission’s request not to make the controversial Hinman document available. Her ruling marks another landmark decision in the over-2-year-old case.
It is worth noting that the document referred to the infamous 2018 speech delivered by William Hinman, a former SEC director. Hinman stated in the document that the top two digital assets were not securities.
Accordingly, the renowned defense attorney James K. Filan shed fresh insights on the judge’s decision. Simultaneously, Brad Garlinghouse, the CEO of Ripple, took to Twitter to share his joy, retweeting the news and emphasizing that this development marked yet another triumph for transparency.
Garlinghouse expressed his anticipation for the imminent public release of the Hinman documents and assured followers that the firm’s lawyers were actively working to facilitate their release. It is worth recalling that last September, Judge Torres delivered a ruling overturning the Securities and Exchange Commission’s objection to disclosing the documents.
This decision aligned with Judge Sarah Netburn’s earlier declaration, where she stated that the administrative rights protecting the agency’s records did not shield the emails and speech drafts. Judge Torres found no fault with Judge Netburn’s ruling, confirming its soundness.
In reaffirming her previous position, Judge Torres emphasized in her latest ruling that the deliberative process or attorney-client privileges did not safeguard the Hinman speech documents. She firmly asserted that these privileges were inapplicable since the records did not pertain to an agency position or policy.
Ripple CTO Clears Air On Ledger Debate
Meanwhile, the spotlight recently shifted onto Ripple’s Chief Technology Officer, David Schwartz, as he shares his valuable insights regarding the highly debated Ledger Recover service. With the introduction of this service by prominent hardware wallet provider Ledger, the crypto community has seen intense debate and speculation over the new product.
As stated in their latest Twitter announcement, Ripple noted that the recently unveiled Ledger Recover feature employs Shamir Secret Sharing to encrypt a version of the user’s private key, which is subsequently divided into three fragments.
Nevertheless, the introduction of the new product has sparked apprehensions regarding security. Some individuals expressed concerns that hackers could exploit the service to retrieve users’ seed phrases. Their worries stem from Ledger’s data breach incident in 2020, where sensitive information, including client phone numbers, over one million email addresses, and physical addresses, was exposed to the public.
Addressing these concerns, Schwartz pointed to a tweet from Ledger on November 15, 2022, affirming that private keys remain within the Secure Element chip, which hackers have never compromised.
Meanwhile, the latest Coingecko data shows that the price of Ripple’s XRP token has surged by 5.8% to trade at $0.46 following the recent judgment.
