Ripple CTO Explains the Currency Code’s Global Inspiration

Ripple’s Chief Technology Officer, David Schwartz, has explained the process behind naming the XRP Ledger’s native currency, “XRP.” 

This came in a commentary posted to the crypto community on Reddit. Edward Farina, Head of Social Adoption for XRP Healthcare, recently spotlighted Schwartz’s analysis on X.

David Schwartz explains why the currency was named ” $XRP”.

X: Not issued by any country
RP: ”Ripples”
= $XRP pic.twitter.com/kOenrcKEGp

— EDO FARINA 🅧 XRP (@edward_farina) February 23, 2024

The Foundation of the Name “XRP”

David Schwartz, also one of the architects of the XRP Ledger, explained how the team settled for naming the ledger’s native asset “XRP” by delving into the historical trend observable with fiat currencies. 

Schwartz highlighted the standard practice wherein the three-letter currency codes of most fiat currencies are constructed by adding a single character to the two-letter country code of the issuing nation.

He provided an example with the United States, where the country code “US” corresponds to the currency code “USD” for U.S. dollars.

In the context of currencies not belonging to any specific country, Schwartz emphasized that the first letter of the currency code must be “X.” This convention arises because assets not issued by any country require distinct identification. 

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As a consequence, country codes starting with “X” are not assigned. The Ripple CTO cited an instance in the currency code “XAU” for gold, which follows from its chemical symbol “AU.”

Based on this premise, Schwartz clarified that the choice of “XRP” as the currency code for the ledger’s native asset stemmed from the early days when it was colloquially referred to as “ripples.”

This historical context led to the natural selection of “XRP” as XRPL’s currency code. Essentially, XRP came from the “X” assigned to no country and “RP” from “ripples.”

Furthermore, Schwartz mentioned the varied usage of currency codes within the broader cryptocurrency sphere. He mentioned that while some opt for “BTC” to represent Bitcoin, adherents to standards often employ “XBT.”