David Schwartz Clarifies Origins of XRP Amidst False Claims

The debate ignited after a post on X suggested that XRP was created in 1988, prompting community members to seek clarity on the timeline from one of the project's primary architects. Schwartz confirmed that while Ryan Fugger did conceptualize a decentralized payment and settlement network in 2004, the system lacked the decentralized assets central to modern blockchain technology. This early iteration, known as RipplePay, focused on trust lines and IOUs rather than the ledger-based infrastructure that defines XRP.

Historical records confirm that the XRP Ledger was engineered in 2011 and launched in 2012 by Schwartz, Jed McCaleb, and Arthur Britto. The team designed the protocol specifically to address limitations in Bitcoin’s framework, such as scalability and speed. While speculative questions persist regarding whether Satoshi Nakamoto drew inspiration from Fugger’s early work, no public evidence exists to support a link between the two projects. The persistent misunderstanding is largely attributed to the shared branding of Ripple, which was later adopted by Ripple Labs to describe a system distinct from Fugger’s original 2004 project.