Ripple CTO David Schwartz Clarifies XRP And Bitcoin Origins In Timeline Debate
Ripple CTO Emeritus David Schwartz clarified that XRP did not exist before Bitcoin. The confusion comes from RipplePay, Ryan Fugger’s 2004 trust-based payment concept, which used credit relationships but was not a blockchain and had no native token. Bitcoin launched in 2009. Development of the XRP Ledger and XRP token began in 2011, and the ledger launched in 2012. That timeline shows XRP came after Bitcoin. The recurring myth persists because RipplePay predates Bitcoin and later Ripple/XRP history is easy to blur online. Schwartz also rejected rumors linking his 1988 distributed-computing patent to blockchain or XRP origins. The main point is that RipplePay was an early payments idea, while the XRP Ledger is a post-Bitcoin cryptographic network with a native asset.
