What if I told you… the man behind XRP once built technology for the NSA?
And that the XRP Ledger wasn’t born in a garage…
…but inside the very system it now threatens to disrupt?
Read this thread before it disappears.
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1/
David Schwartz isn’t just Ripple’s CTO.
He’s one of the original minds behind the XRP Ledger.
But before that?
He worked somewhere secrets are currency:
As a contractor for the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA).
That’s where he built distributed systems.
Initially for surveillance.
Eventually, for consensus.
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2/
In 1991, David filed a patent:
U.S. Patent 5025368
Titled: “Computer System for Distributed Consensus”
This was years before Bitcoin.
Before anyone even whispered the word blockchain.
He created the foundation of what would later become XRPL — and possibly much more.
The patent?
It quietly expired in 2011.
Right when XRP was born.
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3/
Let’s talk origins — not hype.
While Bitcoin maxis were focused on mining and proof-of-work,
David and his team were imagining something cleaner. Smarter.
A consensus model that didn’t burn electricity or waste time.
The XRP Ledger was engineered with precision:
Immutable recordkeeping
Instant settlement
Fluid global value movement
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4/
David didn’t do it alone.
Enter:
Arthur Britto — the elusive co-founder
Jed McCaleb — ex-Mt. Gox, a master of early liquidity games
Together, they built something Bitcoin couldn’t become:
Scalable
Flexible
Regulatory-friendly
Not just a currency.
But a financial nervous system.
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5/
David doesn’t fit the “crypto bro” stereotype.
He doesn’t chase hype.
He leaves clues.
At one point, he said:
> “I worked on a system that was like Bitcoin… in 2004.”
That’s five years before the $BTC
w
hitepaper.
He said it under oath. In court.
Where consequences exist.
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6/
The XRP Ledger launched in 2012.
No ICO.
No pre-mined stash for insiders.
Just 100 billion tokens — all created upfront.
Why?
Because XRP wasn’t designed to be “bought.”
It was built to be used — by banks, governments, and corridors of finance you rarely hear about.
This wasn’t retail tech.
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7/
Now ask yourself:
Why would someone with NSA-level credentials invest over a decade into a protocol the mainstream barely mentions…
…while quietly being explored by central banks?
Because XRP was never about headlines.
It was about infrastructure.
About replacing the rails we all depend on.
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8/
They don’t want you to know who David Schwartz really is.
Because if you did?
The entire narrative around crypto would need rewriting.
He’s not just a developer.
He’s an insider-turned-architect.
He didn’t reject the system.
He redesigned it from within.
And now…
It’s ready to activate.
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9/
The truth doesn’t scream.
It hides.
In expired patents.
In buried commits.
In systems protected by clearance levels.
But maybe — just maybe — you’re beginning to notice.