- Debate over XRP's origins reignites with former Ripple CTO's statement that the concept came before Bitcoin



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David Schwartz, Ripple's former CTO, settled a renewed debate over XRP's origins
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, confirming that the concept of the earlier payment network predated Bitcoin
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by five years, but XRP itself did not.

Schwartz responded on X after a social post claimed that XRP predated Bitcoin by decades. The post described XRP as the oldest digital asset, a description Schwartz directly addressed, drawing a clear line between an early concept and the currency Ripple manages today.

What Ryan Fugger designed in 2004

Ryan Fugger created a decentralized payment and settlement network around 2004. This placed his concept about five years before Satoshi Nakamoto published the Bitcoin whitepaper.

Schwartz confirmed the timeline on X but pointed out an important omission. Fugger's design did not include any decentralized assets. His system, later known as RipplePay, operated as a credit network based on trust funds.

Users directed value through pre-existing trust relationships rather than a shared cryptographic ledger. There was no native token or open asset that could be traded independently.

However, this distinction is important. Bitcoin introduced open bearer assets secured by proof-of-work. The XRP ledger introduced its own model for decentralized value transfer, but it came after Bitcoin, not before.
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