By Solomon Odunayo
The Chief Technical Officer at Ripple, David Schwartz, has recently claimed that he would buy the digital token XRP if he’s not involved with the cross-border payment firm Ripple.
This came about after a crypto enthusiast tweeted that if he had his way such as Schwartz, he would have pushed harder for smart contracts.
Tagging David Schwartz, the user tweeted, “I wonder if David Schwartz ever thinks to himself. I wish I had pushed harder for smart contracts…”
In response to the user’s opinion, Ripple CTO played down the significance of smart contracts, stating that his choice aside from his involvement with Ripple would be building tokenless smart contract systems.
David Schwartz noted:
“I’m still not fully convinced that smart contracts are going to be a big deal. They’re a very exciting area, but to date the only real success is stablecoins. If I wasn’t so focused on Ripple, I probably would be building tokenless smart contract systems.”
I'm still not fully convinced that smart contracts are going to be a big deal. They're a very exciting area, but to date the only real success is stablecoins. If I wasn't so focused on Ripple, I probably would be building tokenless smart contract systems.
— Ｄａｖｉｄ "ＪｏｅｌＫａｔｚ" Ｓｃｈｗａｒｔｚ (@JoelKatz) July 13, 2020
Another user obviously misinterpreted Schwartz’s statement, thinking he would prefer working on smart contracts to his association with Ripple:
“So you don’t think they’re gonna be a big deal but you’d rather be working on them than at Ripple hmmm what does that say about Ripple! LOL.”
Schwartz replied:
“Hahaha! That’s a fair way to interpret what I said. Not what I meant, but fair. It’s mostly because I think I could do smart contracts in a way that’s very different from the way everyone else is trying to do it.”
Hahaha! That's a fair way to interpret what I said. Not what I meant, but fair. It's mostly because I think I could do smart contracts in a way that's very different from the way everyone else is trying to do it. 1/2
— Ｄａｖｉｄ "ＪｏｅｌＫａｔｚ" Ｓｃｈｗａｒｔｚ (@JoelKatz) July 13, 2020
Ripple CTO added that he’s missing the early days of his work on the XRP Ledger when things were done without a definite use case or customers’ support:
“I miss the early days of my work on the XRP Ledger when we were working on clean sheets of paper and could build things whatever way we thought had the most technical merit and didn’t have to support customers or even have a clear use case in mind.”
David Schwartz Says He Will ‘Almost Certainly’ Buy XRP If Not Involved With Ripple
Following the tweets, a supposed XRP community member asked him if he would invest in the digital token XRP if he’s not involved with the payment firm Ripple:
“While you are speculating David Schwartz, if you were not involved with the company Ripple, knowing what you know would you invest in XRP???”
In response, David Schwartz stated he will “almost certainly” buy XRP if he’s not involved with Ripple. He further stressed his association with Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and many other cryptocurrencies.
Ripple CTO wrote:
“Almost certainly. I was a bitcoin miner in 2011. I bought ETH in the first offering. I’ve held a number of ICO tokens and still hold some. I’ve probably owned at least 40 different tokens at one time or another.”