Ripple's CTO Emeritus David Schwartz shared insights at the XRP Vegas event, discussing the early development of the XRP Ledger and his vision for integrating AI to enhance its social credit features. The event highlighted the evolution of AI applications on the XRPL, enabling more sophisticated transactions.
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Vet, an XRP Ledger validator, shares highlights from the just concluded XRP Las Vegas, a two-day XRP event which was held from April 30 to May 1. A highlight of the event was a fireside chat with Ripple CTO emeritus David Schwartz, who is also an original architect of the XRP Ledger. In 2011, the trio of David Schwartz, Jed McCaleb, and Arthur Britto began developing the XRP Ledger (XRPL). Fascinated by Bitcoin, they set out to create a better version that improved upon its limitations with the aim of launching a digital asset that was more sustainable and built specifically for payments.
Fireside chat with David Schwartz at $XRP Vegas. Many cool anecdotes of the early days before and at Ripple.
He mentions also his new idea of AI to break the barrier to use the social credit feature on the XRP Ledger via Rippling of issued asset trustlines between people.
Man… pic.twitter.com/h75SgXKGiW
— Vet (@Vet\_X0) May 1, 2026 The XRP Ledger first launched in June 2012. Shortly thereafter, the trio, joined by Chris Larsen, started the company NewCoin in September 2012, which was shortly renamed OpenCoin and is now called Ripple. Being at the forefront of XRP's innovation since its very start, Schwartz remains an authority figure to tell its story. At the XRP Vegas event, Schwartz shared anecdotes of the early days before and at Ripple. He also touched on a new idea of using AI to break barriers and use the social credit feature on the XRP Ledger via Rippling of issued asset trustlines between people.
Chandler Fang, cofounder of t54ai and ex-product lead at Ripple, shared at the XRP Las Vegas event about bringing the agentic economy to the XRPL. In February, the x402 facilitator went live on the XRP Ledger, allowing AI agents to pay for services using and RLUSD with no need for API key or accounts. AI agents are moving from recommendations to execution, paying for APIs, hiring other agents, managing balances, settling jobs, and acting on behalf of users, and this requires more than a wallet. It requires a trust layer with agent identity, risk assessment, credit, and accountability when something goes wrong. Fang highlights a vision of enabling this next layer on the XRPL, making agent-native transactions trustworthy enough to scale.
David Schwartz is one of the original architects of the XRP Ledger, having co-developed it with Jed McCaleb and Arthur Britto in 2011, aiming to create a sustainable digital asset for payments.
AI is being integrated to enhance the social credit feature on the XRP Ledger, allowing for the 'Rippling' of asset trustlines between users, which could facilitate more efficient transactions.
The event showcased the x402 facilitator, enabling AI agents to execute transactions on the XRPL without needing API keys or accounts, thus allowing them to manage payments and services autonomously.
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