XRP Has No Issuer—Ripple CTO David ‘JoelKatz’ Schwartz

David Schwartz, the chief technology officer (CTO) at Ripple, intervened and provided a thorough explanation to put an end to any rumors or misconceptions that were circulating on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter). 

One user on X publicly questioned why Brad Garlinghouse, the CEO of Ripple, is regarded as the face of XRP when the asset is meant to be decentralized. The user commented on the post of five-time UFC winner Conor McGregor , who basically showed his interest in XRP, Solana (SOL), and Cardano (ADA).

David explained, “Garlinghouse is the CEO of Ripple, a company. XRP has no issuer — all the XRP that will ever exist was created when the ledger was created.”

He added that the XRP Ledger’s design simply allows anyone to claim XRP at first, without competition or mining, in contrast to other networks that require mining or other processes to issue fresh tokens over time. 

Schwartz, however, also discussed the broader picture of decentralization to persuade people to focus more on what truly matters and less on labels. He advises concentrating on what users want a decentralized network to ensure or prevent, rather than arguing over semantics. From there, determining the likelihood that a system could be compromised or controlled is much simpler.