Ripple CTO Emeritus David Schwartz responded to criticism of his title with a long poem explaining his role in crypto and the XRP Ledger’s development.
Summary
- David Schwartz answered criticism of his emeritus title with a detailed poem about XRP Ledger.
- The verse covered cryptography, payments, custody, decentralized exchanges, tokenization, bridges, stablecoins, and network security topics.
- Schwartz remains Ripple’s CTO emeritus and an XRP Ledger co-creator after leaving daily leadership duties.
The verse covered cryptography, payment rails, custody, decentralized exchanges, automated market makers, tokenization, derivatives, bridges and stablecoins. It also referred to Schwartz’s work explaining blockchain systems over more than 15 years.
David Schwartz responds to criticism with XRP Ledger verse
The exchange began after an X user appeared to downplay the meaning of Schwartz’s CTO emeritus title. Schwartz answered with a structured rhyme that presented his technical background and long involvement with Ripple and XRPL.
“I am the very model of a CTO emeritus,” David Schwartz wrote. He described himself as a ledger creator and referred to hashes, Merkle trees and transaction data before moving into broader financial infrastructure.
The poem also addressed payment rails, custody and liquidity. Schwartz said he could explain decentralized exchanges and automated market makers to technical and non-technical audiences.
His response used humor, but the content focused on his experience rather than a new XRP Ledger announcement. Schwartz did not introduce a product, amendment or release date in the post.
Ripple veteran outlines 15 years of crypto work
Schwartz helped develop the XRP Ledger with Jed McCaleb and Arthur Britto beginning in 2011. The network launched in June 2012 as a payment-focused alternative to Bitcoin’s mining-based system.
He later joined OpenCoin, which became Ripple, as chief cryptographer. David Schwartz became Ripple’s chief technology officer in 2018 and moved away from daily leadership duties at the end of 2025.
Ripple now identifies him as CTO emeritus and a co-creator of XRPL. He also remains involved in public discussions about XRP, stablecoins, tokenization, network design and blockchain security.
“I’ve spent decades explaining crypto’s finer points,” Schwartz wrote. The line referred to his continuing public role after leaving the company’s day-to-day technology position.
XRP Ledger development continues after leadership change
David Schwartz’s post arrived as XRPL developers prepared version 3.2.0 of the network’s core server software. As previously reported by crypto.news, the planned release will rename rippled to xrpld and requires infrastructure operators to update some systems.
The release has been linked to performance work, code cleanup and fixes for number handling and rounding. June 15 remains a target rather than a confirmed release date from XRPL Operations.
Separately, as previously reported, it was found that average daily XRPL transactions rose 35.3% during the first quarter of 2026. The network also recorded growth in stablecoins and tokenized real-world assets while XRP’s market price weakened.
Schwartz’s poem did not claim responsibility for every recent development. It instead presented his historical role, technical knowledge and continued place in the XRP Ledger community.
