When most people think of the beginning of crypto, their minds go straight to Bitcoin and its mysterious creator, Satoshi Nakamoto.
But what if another vision for decentralized payments was already brewing years earlier—quietly and without all the fanfare?
That’s exactly what newly surfaced emails from 2014 suggest.
Shared by prominent XRP community member SMOQE, the messages trace Ripple’s roots all the way back to 2004—a full four years before Bitcoin’s whitepaper made history.
Emails Hint at Ripple’s Real Origin Story
These emails feature insights from tech writer Reutzel Bailey and crypto industry insider Jeffrey Cliff.
In their 2014 conversation, they discuss how Ryan Fugger first laid out a peer-to-peer payment idea called RipplePay back in 2004.
At that time, it wasn’t meant to be a cryptocurrency.
Fugger’s focus was building a trust-based digital system where people could send value without needing a bank.
It wasn’t about mining coins or creating public ledgers—it was about enabling direct, human-centered transactions.
Ripple Came Before Bitcoin, But Wasn’t Trying to Be Bitcoin
In the email thread, Bailey notes how RipplePay was built long before the Bitcoin boom. He adds that Chris Larsen later picked up on Bitcoin’s rise and guided Ripple toward the crypto space.
Jeffrey Cliff chimed in to emphasize that Ripple didn’t try to copy Bitcoin.
Instead, he stressed, Ripple’s concept actually predated Bitcoin.
He described it as something separate from the “math-based currency” hype that followed Bitcoin’s launch.
So while Ripple’s modern form may have joined the crypto movement later, its core idea was already alive years before the first Bitcoin block was mined in 2009.
RipplePay’s Vision Focused on Trust, Not Mining
Back in 2004, Fugger’s original idea wasn’t about creating a new form of money—it was about improving how trusted parties could exchange value.
There was no public blockchain, no mining, and no tokens—just a vision for moving money in a better way.
Rather than using miners to approve transactions, the system relied on a small group of validators.
This made things faster and more private—but also more exclusive.
It wasn’t until 2011 that the Ripple community started exploring the idea of opening up validation to the public.
From RipplePay to XRP Ledger and Beyond
By 2011, big changes were in motion. Jed McCaleb, Arthur Britto, and David Schwartz began writing code for what would become the XRP Ledger.
Their goal? To create a better version of Bitcoin that skipped the resource-heavy proof-of-work system.
In 2012, Fugger stepped aside, and the team officially launched their new platform.
It was called NewCoin at first, then OpenCoin in 2013, and finally became Ripple in 2015.
The XRP token itself launched in 2012.
That was the same year Netflix hit one million U.S. subscribers, and a full decade before Jed McCaleb sold off his last XRP holdings in 2022.
Founders Divided the Tokens and Moved On
When XRP launched, its founders gifted 80 billion tokens to Ripple Labs.
McCaleb personally received 9.5 billion XRP, with a plan to sell gradually to avoid shocking the market.
He followed through with that agreement and finally finished selling in 2022.
After his exit, McCaleb moved on to co-found Stellar, another crypto payment platform.
Meanwhile, Chris Larsen remained with Ripple and now serves as its chairman.
So, Is Ripple Older Than Bitcoin?
Technically? In terms of concept, yes. The idea behind Ripple—sending value without a central authority—was in motion years before Satoshi ever released the Bitcoin whitepaper.
Though Bitcoin takes credit for launching the first functioning cryptocurrency, Ripple’s early sketches show that the dream of bank-free value exchange had already taken root.
These rediscovered emails are a reminder that innovation doesn’t always start where the headlines begin.