David Schwartz, the chief technology officer CTO at Ripple, took to the X/Twitter social media platform to share some important insights about himself and his work.
In a lengthy tweet, Schwartz shared how he came to work for Ripple. Ripple’s cofounder and former CEO Chris Larsen approached him and invited him to join the team because of Schwartz’s loyalty. Schwartz said he would remain loyal to Larsen as long as he believed Larsen was the right person to lead the company. He described Larsen as “rational” with an opinion that’s hard to dispute. However, Schwartz made it clear he was loyal to Ripple, which employed him, rather than just Larsen personally, even though he was his boss.
“Many years ago, I was talking to Chris Larsen and he said he wanted me on the board at Ripple because I was loyal. And in the moment, I interpreted it as loyal to him,” Schwartz tweeted. “I told him that I would be loyal to him so long as I felt he was the right guy to run Ripple. He’s rational…”
Schwartz stated he currently holds a lot of Ripple stock. As a result, he revealed he doesn’t need to work for Ripple. Therefore, he will give up his high-ranking CTO position “as soon as it’s not fun anymore.”
When it comes to loyalty from others, Schwartz admitted telling people he doesn’t need it if they don’t think he deserves it. Even his harshest critics agree with this point, though they may take jabs at him without realizing it, he noted.
Despite owning a lot of Ripple shares, Schwartz recently tweeted that he’s “not a billionaire yet.” As reported previously, Schwartz owns 2% of Ripple stock. However, he acknowledged choosing stock over XRP was a “big mistake” as the three Ripple co-founders – Arthur Britto, Jed McCaleb, and Chris Larsen – opted for XRP instead, receiving 20 billion XRP between them.
In 2020, when the SEC sued Ripple, it also took legal action against Larsen and CEO Brad Garlinghouse for selling XRP directly to institutional investors as unregistered securities. A few years later, the SEC dropped the case against them but not against Ripple.
