Ripple CTO David Schwartz has damaged his silence on a long-standing query within the cryptocurrency neighborhood: Was Ripple named after the Grateful Useless’s iconic music?
In a current X dialog, a person requested the Ripple CTO if the identify “Ripple” was impressed by the Grateful Useless’s 1970 hit music “Ripple.”
Schwartz responded, saying, “Considerably. I feel if we weren’t capable of get the area ripple.com, we seemingly would not have chosen the identify ripple. We acquired the area as a result of an amazing man who was a Useless fan registered it due to the music and he preferred the corporate.”
Considerably. I feel if we weren’t capable of get the area https://t.co/TrIRwHx1ub, we seemingly would not have chosen the identify @ripple. We acquired the area as a result of an amazing man who was a Useless fan registered it due to the music and he preferred the corporate.
— David ‘JoelKatz’ Schwartz (@JoelKatz) July 3, 2025
The Ripple CTO’s response means that, whereas the identify “Ripple” was circuitously impressed by the music, the supply of the ripple.com area — owned by a Grateful Useless fan who beloved the corporate — performed a key position within the naming choice.
Historic flashback
In 2011, David Schwartz, Jed McCaleb and Arthur Britto began constructing the XRP Ledger (XRPL). The three builders continued their efforts to create a distributed ledger that addressed Bitcoin’s core shortcomings, initially naming the code “Ripple.”
The XRP Ledger was then launched in June 2012. The trio was quickly joined by Chris Larsen, and in September 2012, they based NewCoin, which was later renamed OpenCoin.
In 2013, Opencoin was relaunched as Ripple Labs. In the course of the first talks with potential prospects, the staff was requested in regards to the distinctions between the Ripple venture and the OpenCoin firm. With the neighborhood referring to the digital asset as XRP, firm officers selected to rebrand the corporate as Ripple Labs, which has since been shortened to “Ripple.”
Ripple is making use of for a nationwide financial institution constitution in the USA, in a current main milestone, following the same transfer by stablecoin large Circle.
