John E. Deaton

Two days ago, everybody was following the tweets Rob and James were writing during the hearing between the SEC and Ripple with honourable Judge 2020 ended with a big bang, not exactly what you wanted to see, as the big bang was caused by the SEC. Well, where the SEC thought they were fighting RIPPLE and their powerful team of lawyers, it was this one person that got up and took it upon himself to fight back. No surprises here, I am talking about John E. Deaton, the XRPCommunity Lawyer.

Another BIG name that showed up is lawyer Jeremy Hogan. He shares his knowledge, making the whole SEC vs. Ripple Court Case easier to understand; .... but it is John E. Deaton that took some

ACTION ! ! !

So, who is John, what drives him, what is happening in his live ! ! !

Following John on Twitter, his appearances on the OnTheChain Streams with Chip and Jeff, it is very easy to understand he is a very friendly person, VERY transparent, BUT not a person you want to have on the other side of the table when in a lawsuit.

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I reached out to him, took a little while as his priority is not sitting with an XRPTwin interview, but he took his time to answer and well, let's just dive into it.

XRPTwin:

Who is John Deaton, can you share things about yourself ? ? ?

John:

Born and raised in Detroit. Very poor. High crime neighbourhood. Only one in family to graduate high school. Father of 3 daughters. Business owner.

XRPTwin:

How did you get into Ripple / XRP ? ? ?

John:

I first got into Bitcoin like most people. Researched Ripple and XRP and for a long time I only owned BTC ETH and XRP. Bought XRP in 2016.

So December 2020 came around, a message from Ripple that they probably will be sued by the SEC; this started a train of tweets/ messages by the different people involved in this case.

XRPTwin:

A lot of people fear the SEC for just “BEING the SEC” the Securities and Exchange Commission .... When they are mentioned, it means serious business, where do you stand in this, facing the SEC ? ? ?

John:

I understand why the SEC causes fear. the Sec can put a small company out of business.I think it has become a cesspool of corruption.

Personally I say only way to deal with govt and SEC is fight back.

XRPTwin:

When did you decide to stand up and decide to file a petition against the SEC ? ? ?

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John:

On Xmas eve. I read the complaint on Dec 23. And the next day iI said to my girlfriend:

I’m going after the SEC.

6 days later I filed it.

XRPTwin:

Can you please elaborate what happened when the news came out you filed the petition ? ? ?

John:

When the petition was filed I had some lawyers tell me that I will be lucky if the govt doesn’t come after me. And a lot were just like “you’re going to lose it so why even do it”. But there was strategy behind it. It made the SEC comment.

Also, when news came out, the XRP community was immediately amazing and supportive. There are always some people critical but 99.5% were amazing.

XRPTwin:

Have you spoken to Ripple about this ? ? ?

John:

No I haven’t had any contact with Ripple or the SEC

XRPTwin:

In 2017 I started investing in Crypto. I read a lot about the top 5 coins, but got triggered by Ripple as a company and “their” digital asset that was older than the company.

I do not know how many times I corrected people using Ripple when they meant XRP and vice versa; did it yesterday with a father at my sons school. I know MoonLambo, Matt will love this Paragraph ..... it grinds his gears .....

We saw people correct (official) entities, investors and other individuals using the two names incorrectly, one being the company, one being the digital asset ! To me, it is clear they are two separate things. Can you tell us a how you see this ? ? ?

John:

If Ripple could go back I bet one thing that they would do is not allow it to be called Ripple at first. In the beginning it probably was like it will get the name of the Company out there, but then it became a problem. If your asset is called Ripple it sounds more like a security. I wonder if Ripple regrets changing their name from Opencoin ? ! ?

XRPTwin:

Well, who knows, Opencoin it was and maybe should have stayed like that. Maybe Ripple, if they read this Blog, could answer :–)

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XRPTwin:

Can you say something about the petition you wrote in December 2020, 91 pages ? ? ?

John:

The writ of Mandamus was one hundred percent a strategic move. I knew the chances of winning were like 1% but it would force the SEC’s hand to respond and they did and now we have a shot to join the case.

XRPTwin:

How messy is the situation that Jay Clayton is not working for the SEC anymore, Is this an advantage / disadvantage for you / for the SEC and will this influence the outcome ? ? ?

John:

Clayton can he be given a subpoena and he has to testify ... that said: I wish Jay Clayton was still at the SEC because it will be much more difficult to issue a subpoena now and he will fight it and the SEC will claim privilege.

XRPTwin:

XRP a security in the United States ...... Really ? ? ? Will that push America back economically ? ? ? “The World” deeming XRP NOT being a security, will this actually help your case, but also Ripple's case against the SEC ? ? ?

John:

All the other nations saying XRP isn’t a security definitely helps.

XRPTwin:

If people, the XRPCommunity, would like to contribute to you and your cause, how can they do this ? ? ?

John:

Honestly, XRPHolders already help. When I ask questions as long as they respond

XRPTwin:

What is considered a win for you ? ? ?

John:

A win for me is of course winning the motion to intervene and being a party and actively participating in every aspect of the case in order to represent XRP Holders and Developers and small businesses. That is a huge win.

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If the judge denies the motion to intervene its possible she could allow us to still be involved by granting us elevated amicus status. What that means is we wouldn’t be a party in the case but we could file a brief and participate in the arguments before her. That would also be a win.

But even if we are denied the motion, the judge knows that there are over 11,000 XRP holders who have been greatly impacted and she would have read our brief and our papers and it will help form the issues. So even if we lose on the motion we made a difference.

XRPTwin:

You always have people saying .... Oh, “a small person” versus the big established SEC, NO CHANCE AT ALL, what is your vision ? ? ?

John:

It’s something that annoys me all the time, especially from lawyers. Sometimes the law is wrong. The only way to change something is to try. You can’t win or change anything unless you try. What choice do we have when we face injustice? We either accept it or we say no we won’t accept it. There are many XRP holders like me. The only difference is that I have a law degree and I could try to do something about it. And look what happened. I was 1 guy willing to fight. I didn’t know if anyone would support what I’m doing. One guy but now I’m over 11,000 strong. And when people know you're willing to fight for them they will fight for you.

XRPTwin:

If I asked you to JUST write 2 sentences on the Howie Test, can you tell me what your stands are against the Howie Test ? ? ?

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John:

I actually don’t have anything against the Howie test. It was a very good test articulated 75 years ago. My problem is how Howie is interpreted by the SEC. the SEC misapplies Howie and tries to stretch its meaning and application.

XRPTwin:

If the SEC would have filed in 2016, 2017 would this been a different case than doing this in 2020, 2021 ? ? ?

John:

Yes, if the SEC brought this case is 2015, the SEC would have had a strong case. But even then, XRP the token itself is not a security. It’s how XRP was marketed and sold back then that could’ve been called a security. XRP is a product – a commodity. It’s the oranges in Howie. The Court never said oranges were securities

XRPTwin:

What do you think about Ripple's accusation of the SEC distorting the facts about the status of its cryptocurrency XRP (stated in the formal response to the regulatory lawsuit) ? ? ?

John:

The SEC in this case has distorted, mischaracterised and misled the public and the court. They even misled the court and claimed I said I was filing the case to get the exchanges to trade XRP because XRP will double and I can make a profit. I never even came close to saying that. It’s sad and disgusting.

XRPTwin:

Besides standing up for the XRP investor, don't you think this is standing up for the whole Crypto Community, should we not unite in this filing ? ? ?

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John:

The SEC will not provide guidance. And if Congress doesn’t pass a law regulating Crypto, then this case will be the industry’s only guidance. So yes we are representing all of crypto in this case whether people realise it or not.

XRPTwin:

You think your case is tied to the Ripple vs. SEC, do they strengthen each other, are they separate ? ? ?

John:

My case was filed separate from Ripple and I’ve never even discussed my case with Ripple or its lawyers. Ripple has to protect Ripple and Ripples shareholders. The SEC isn’t protecting XRP holders so we must protect ourselves. But I do believe that the case I filed has helped Ripple only because it’s making the SEC have to decide whether they want to fight only Ripple or fight us to.

XRPTwin:

How long do you think this all is going to take, will both cases be dragged for years and years, or will this all be done by this year ? ? ?

John:

I predict a settlement by the end of the year

XRPTwin:

What about the SEC running a Ripple node validating, is that not contradicting the SEC case?

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John:

I think that SEC running a node isn’t by itself significant. But when you run a node and you allow them to buy 9% of MGI and XRP trades for 8 years, and the SEC agrees that banks can custody crypto and you never say anything about XRP, then you are signalling to investors that you don’t believe XRP is a security.

So the node is one aspect of it. If that node is a validator node then I would say it’s a huge deal because then the SEC’s node helped validate billions of transactions of illegal securities apparently

XRPTwin:

Do you have anything to add, I haven't touched in my questions; I would love to ask you 20 more questions, but that ....... is not possible ? ? ?

John:

Only thing I would add is that I believe, in the end, truth will have its day. It may take some time and some fighting but I believe it.

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Well, first of all, I would like to thank John for taking the time to answer all these questions as he has been really busy. Johns Case of course continues and the questions I asked may not cover the case up to the point where we are right now, but it is just moving so fast ! ! !

We all will follow John, trying to help him where possible and hopefully with Johns approval, I will revisit his complaint.

Be respectful to each other and GO GO GO ! ! !

STAY SAFE ! ! !

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