Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse has sparked speculation about the true identity of Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous creator of Bitcoin, suggesting that Ripple CTO David Schwartz could be Nakamoto. During a recent podcast, Garlinghouse revealed that some of the developers behind the XRP Ledger (XRPL), the underlying blockchain of XRP, were also early engineers of the Bitcoin network. He claimed that these developers aimed to create a more advanced digital asset to address the scalability and energy consumption issues of Bitcoin.
Crypto enthusiasts within the community have responded to Garlinghouse’s remarks, with many suggesting that Schwartz could be Nakamoto. One prominent XRP community member, wEeZiE, referred to a previous post in which they made a similar assertion in 2022. wEeZiE highlighted the timeline of events, noting that the development of XRP began shortly after Nakamoto’s last message and that Schwartz had expressed a desire for something new around the same time. The creation of the XRP Ledger involved Schwartz, Arthur Britto, and Jed McCaleb.
wEeZiE also drew attention to the fact that both Nakamoto and Schwartz used pseudonyms. They pointed out that Nakamoto shared a pre-released version of the Bitcoin code on Schwartz’s birthday, further fueling speculation. However, it is important to note that there is currently no confirmed identity for Nakamoto, and claims by figures like Craig Wright have been dismissed by the courts.
Despite the uncertainty surrounding Nakamoto’s true identity, Schwartz responded to the claims by stating that he is more likely to be Nakamoto than Wright. It is worth mentioning that Nakamoto described Ripple as being interested in building its own payment system with trust.
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