#XRPETF Alright, let's dive into XRP's founding history:

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Early Development (2011–2012)

Background:

Before XRP existed, a group of developers — Jed McCaleb, Arthur Britto, and David Schwartz — were trying to create a better version of Bitcoin.

They believed Bitcoin's mining system was inefficient and energy-intensive.

Idea:

They wanted a faster, cheaper, and more scalable system for moving money, especially for banks and financial institutions.

So they built a consensus ledger — meaning transactions would be validated without mining.

Creation of XRP Ledger:

In June 2012, they finished developing the XRP Ledger (originally called the Ripple protocol).

XRP was created before the company Ripple (then called OpenCoin) was founded.

100 billion XRP coins were generated at launch — no mining process was needed.

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Founding of Ripple (Company) (2012–2013)

Chris Larsen, a well-known entrepreneur, joined Jed McCaleb.

Together, they co-founded a company initially called OpenCoin in September 2012.

OpenCoin focused on building solutions around the XRP Ledger.

In 2013, OpenCoin changed its name to Ripple Labs, and later just Ripple.

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XRP vs Ripple: Important Distinction

XRP = the digital asset (the token).

Ripple = the private company that builds technology (like RippleNet) for banks using XRP.

They are separate, but closely linked historically.

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Early Distribution

The 100 billion XRP were divided up:

80 billion went to Ripple Labs to help fund operations and partnerships.

20 billion were given to the founders (McCaleb, Britto, Larsen, Schwartz, etc.).

Later on, there were disputes over how XRP was sold/distributed, leading to lawsuits — especially between Ripple and the SEC (U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission), but that's a bigger story if you want me to get into it.

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Would you like me to also break down the drama between the founders (like Jed McCaleb leaving to create Stellar/XLM) and the legal battles Ripple faced? It’s pretty interesting.