For years, bitcoin has been considered the genesis of cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin is widely credited with having laid the basics of the modern digital asset industry since its creation in 2009 by the anonymous figure Satoshi Nakamoto.
Interestingly, some investors have sometimes challenged the original story of cryptocurrencies. A rebuilt complaint draws attention to the cryptographic community, especially among the supporters of XRP, due to new evidence that The Ripple XRP may have been Created before Bitcoin.
The origins of XRP in 2004
THE Discussion launched on The social media platform X after a user and a cryptographic commentator known as SMQKE on the platform published an interesting comment: “E-mails 2014 confirm:” Ripple is older than Bitcoin “.
The messaging thread, dated February 2014, includes the contributions of journalist Bailey Reutzel and developer Jeffrey Cliff. In this document, Reutzel confirms that “the first iteration of Ripple was designed by Ryan Fugger in 2004.” At that time, Satoshi Nakamoto had not yet introduced the concept of decentralized digital payments in blockchain.
XRP’s original vision of Fugger was Ripplepay, which is a peer confidence network designed to allow communities to issue and exchange credits long before any mention of a blockchain or mine.
However, the platform struggled with the problems linked to the participants who are not committed. As Reutzel explains in the message, Fugger sought ways to solve these problems and finally gave the reins to Chris Larsen, who then co-founded Ripple Labs and XRP in 2012. Under the leadership of Larsen, Ripple began to pivot towards what we now understand as an cryptocurrency platform-based on the blockchain. But according to Reutzel, the change focused more on the capitalization of the growing popularity of Bitcoin at the time rather than copying its fundamental principles.
Cliff, in the same exchange of emails, rejected the idea that Ripple was a reaction to Bitcoin’s beating. He said: “Not true. Ripple is anterior to Bitcoin, and the beaten media that followed.”
Early XRP structure: Not really a crypto?
E-mails make a clear distinction between Ripple as a network and XRP as a currency. It is well known that Ripple was not initially designed to be A crypto in the way Bitcoin was. In fact, Reutzel’s remarks specify that Larsen positioned XRP as a cryptocurrency mainly to attract attention, not because the Ripple platform itself concerned cryptocurrencies at the time.
XRP was not based on proof of work or blockchain in its first form, but its objective aligned itself on the decentralization of financial exchanges and cross -border payments. This concept would later be popularized by Bitcoin architecture. This alone makes the argument that altcoin is technically older than bitcoin difficult to reject, even if it was not entirely crypto in structure during its creation.
However, many crypto investors would say that Bitcoin is the original cryptocurrency. It continues to maintain this title so far as the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, with a current share of 64.8% of the total industry.
Adobe Stock star image, tradingView.com graphic
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