A question and answer session between members of the community and David Schwartz has gone we’ve pulled back another layer of the early history of XRP and Ripple.
The discussion took place publicly on social media platform X, where users asked a series of questions about the small unit of the token, the creative power behind the XRP Ledger, and other forgotten cultural details from Ripple’s early online presence. The answer is from Schwartz: gave extraordinary details the personalities and ideas that shaped Ripple and Ledger in its formative years.
Name of Ripple, Drop, and role of Arthur Britto
I when did the exchange begin a member of the XRP community known as Bird asked Schwartz who came up with the word “drop” as the name of the smallest unit of the altcoin. The question was to clarify historical information for writing purposes. Schwartz he answered and said he couldn’t say with absolute certainty, but he believed the idea came from Arthur Britto, one of the first architects. The XRP Ledger.
Schwartz then it was extended beyond the name question and offered a personal comparison between himself and Britto. He described himself as having the same kind of intelligence as most people, moreover, but said that Britto had something completely different, a rare quality that others lacked.
Another community member, Toby, changed the conversation from technological history to cultural curiosity. He he asked that Ripple’s name, which is also a Grateful Dead song, and the appearance of Dancing Bear on the old Ripple 404 error page were part of a deep inside joke or inspiration.
According to Schwartz, connection only he just knew what was going on. The ripple.com domain was registered by a Grateful Dead fan who defended it because of the song, and Ripple later acquired the domain from that person.
A Realistic Assessment of XRP Price Expectations
As the discussion continues, the XRPL validator Vet asked Schwartz to provide a concrete example from the past that demonstrated the special quality he was referring to Britto. Schwartz responded with pointing to two main ideas pioneered at Britto: the concept of an exchange built directly on the XRP Ledger and the use of sourcing methods to allow payments to be drawn incrementally from multiple sources of income.
The tone of the conversation changed again when one user urged Schwartz to publicly tell XRP fans that the price will not reach figures like $50 or $100. However, Schwartz refused to make such a statement.
He explained that although he himself did not think that such price levels were possible, history has taught him to be careful when he announced what crypto values cannot do. He remembered thinking that XRP would never reach $0.25 and selling his holdings at $0.10 because it felt absurdly high at the time. This was at a time when Bitcoin reaching $100 seemed impossible.
Featured image from Shutterstock, chart from Tradingview.com
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