A newly unearthed document shared by XRP community member SMOQE has ignited fresh debate in the crypto world, suggesting that Ripple’s story didn’t begin in 2012 or even with Bitcoin in 2008, but as far back as 2004. That’s four years before Bitcoin was born.
The document includes a 2014 email conversation involving tech journalist Reutzel Bailey. In it, Bailey argues that Ripple’s original concept existed long before Bitcoin’s whitepaper hit the web, forcing many to revisit who truly started the digital finance movement.
A Timeline Rewritten: Ripple’s 2004 Beginnings
According to the emails, it was Ryan Fugger who laid the groundwork for Ripple in 2004. He launched a platform called RipplePay, which allowed users to transfer value directly to each other, completely peer-to-peer, without relying on banks or third parties.
While RipplePay didn’t use blockchain or a native cryptocurrency, its core idea aligned closely with what would later define decentralized finance.
The real turning point came when Chris Larsen joined the project. Bailey suggests that Larsen rebranded the platform during the crypto boom to present it as a digital currency project, even though its original purpose wasn’t tied to crypto at all.
“Larsen pushed this [Ripple] as a cryptocurrency to catch attention,” Bailey noted in the conversation.
Ripple Isn’t a Bitcoin Clone
Critics have sometimes accused Ripple of copying Bitcoin’s idea. But another voice in the email thread, Jeffrey Cliff, strongly disagreed, saying:
“Ripple predates Bitcoin.”
It’s a valid point. RipplePay started in 2004, Bitcoin was proposed in 2008, and XRP wasn’t launched until 2012. While Bitcoin was undeniably the first real cryptocurrency, the concepts behind Ripple came earlier, making it less of a copy and more of a parallel vision that matured later.
The Transition: From RipplePay to the XRP Ledger
Things really accelerated in 2011, when developers Jed McCaleb, Arthur Britto, and David Schwartz began building what became the XRP Ledger (XRPL). Their goal was to create a better version of Bitcoin, one that didn’t rely on energy-intensive mining and could handle cross-border payments more efficiently.
McCaleb reached out to Fugger and proposed evolving RipplePay into a blockchain-based network. That led to the formation of NewCoin in 2012, which was soon renamed OpenCoin, and eventually just Ripple.
The team created XRP as the native token of XRPL, and 80 billion XRP were given to Ripple. Jed McCaleb personally received 9.5 billion XRP, which he eventually sold over time, exiting Ripple completely by 2022. He later co-founded Stellar, while Larsen remains Ripple’s chairman.
Ripple’s Real Legacy: More Than Just a Bitcoin Rival
Although Bitcoin takes credit as the first true cryptocurrency, Ripple’s backstory shows that the dream of decentralizing finance wasn’t born in 2008; it had already started evolving years earlier.
As Ripple continues its work in modernizing global payments, this newly rediscovered history adds more depth to its story. Far from being a Bitcoin copycat, Ripple may have actually helped spark the entire conversation about moving money without banks, before anyone had even heard of Satoshi Nakamoto.
