XRP Origins Clarified: Schwartz Sets Record Straight on Timeline Debate

Ripple CTO Emeritus David Schwartz has clarified a long-standing debate in the XRP community regarding the origins of XRP and Bitcoin.

The controversy stems from RipplePay, an early trust-based payment concept created by Ryan Fugger in 2004, which predates Bitcoin's launch in 2009. However, Schwartz emphasized that RipplePay did not use blockchain technology or a native digital asset.

The XRP Ledger and XRP token were developed starting from 2011 and launched in 2012, years after Bitcoin's inception.

Schwartz also addressed rumors connecting his 1988 distributed computing patent to blockchain or XRP design. He clarified that this earlier work should not be considered evidence of XRP's existence before Bitcoin.