For years, Bitcoin has been regarded as the genesis of cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin is widely credited with laying the foundation for the modern digital asset industry since its creation in 2009 by the anonymous figure Satoshi Nakamoto.
The email thread, dated February 2014, includes contributions from journalist Bailey Reutzel and developer Jeffrey Cliff. In it, Reutzel confirms that “The first iteration of Ripple was conceived by Ryan Fugger in 2004.” At this time, Satoshi Nakamoto had not yet introduced the concept of blockchain-decentralized digital payments.
Fugger’s original vision of XRP was RipplePay, which is a peer-to-peer trust network designed to allow communities to issue and exchange credits long before any mention of a blockchain or mining.
However, the platform struggled with issues related to uncommitted participants. As Reutzel explains in the message, Fugger sought ways to address these issues and eventually handed over the reins to Chris Larsen, who later co-founded Ripple Labs and XRP in 2012. Under Larsen’s leadership, Ripple began pivoting toward what we now understand as a blockchain-based cryptocurrency platform. But according to Reutzel, the shift was more about capitalizing on Bitcoin’s growing mainstream popularity at the time rather than copying its fundamentals.
Cliff, in the same email exchange, pushed back on the idea that Ripple was a reaction to Bitcoin hype. He stated: “Not true. Ripple predates Bitcoin, and the hype that followed.”
XRP did not rely on proof-of-work or blockchain in its earliest form, but its purpose aligned with decentralizing financial exchange and cross-border payments. This concept would later be popularized through Bitcoin’s architecture. That alone makes the argument that the altcoin is technically older than Bitcoin difficult to dismiss outright, even if it wasn’t fully crypto in structure during its creation.
