Pundit Asserts Ripple Execs Might Have Created Bitcoin, Cites Historical Docs

Edward Farina, XRP community figure and Head of Social Adoption at XRP Healthcare, recently asserted that Ripple executives might have created Bitcoin, citing historical documents.

Farina made this bold assertion while commenting on a previous report from The Crypto Basic on Ripple CTO David Schwartz’s 1988 patent for a system with a concept similar to the XRP Ledger (XRPL).

Edward Farina highlighted the 1988 patent, which predates Bitcoin itself. Notably, Schwartz filed for this patent under the entity David Schwartz Enterprises, Inc. 20 years before Bitcoin’s pseudonymous founder, Satoshi Nakamoto, proposed the idea of Bitcoin.

David Schwartz filed a patent similar to #BTC in 1988 and worked for the NSA. Satoshi also came out with a colouring book that hinted towards “Ripple” as well. Wouldn’t be surprised if it was the upper C level of Ripples team that is behind #BTC as a test before introducing $XRP pic.twitter.com/L06tGs3rZ2

— EDO FARINA ? XRP (@edward_farina) September 24, 2023

Note that the XRP Ledger launched four years after Bitcoin, mirroring the core blockchain concept of the Bitcoin network. The ledger has perfected payment principles in some ways in which the Bitcoin network fell short.

Farina believes the present Ripple executives, such as CTO David Schwartz, had initially developed Bitcoin to test how a payment system would work before moving on to launch the XRP Ledger.

Reasons Behind This Assertion

One of the factors behind Farina’s claims is a publication supposedly released by Satoshi Nakamoto. Interestingly, in 2019, two books surfaced on Amazon, credited to Nakamoto. The title of one of these books is “Wave and Ripple Design Book.”

Farina’s logic builds on the mention of “Ripple” in this book supposedly authored by Nakamoto. However, it remains uncertain whether these books came from the Bitcoin creator, given the number of people claiming to be him.

While not mentioned by Farina, another possible trigger of the assertion that Ripple execs might have created Bitcoin is that Nakamoto commented on RipplePay, the first Ripple payment system designed by Ryan Fugger, the brain behind the original XRPL concept.

Fugger’s RipplePay also predates Bitcoin, having been launched in 2005. David Schwartz recently confirmed that Nakamoto did talk about RipplePay. An unconfirmed disclosure suggests that the Bitcoin creator admired the concept.

Recall that the XRPL’s architects, including Schwartz, built on the RipplePay idea by Fugger. According to David, the XRP Ledger only differs from the original RipplePay system because it uses a native token, XRP.

These facts and the relationship between these ideas have resulted in some proponents besides Farina speculating that the developers of the XRPL might have been behind Bitcoin. However, these developers, including Schwartz, have never personally made such claims.