XRP Co-Founder Clarifies: Cryptocurrency Not Created for Banks

Panos Mekras, co-founder of Anodos Finance, recently clarified a common misconception about XRP, stating that it was not created for banks. According to Mekras, the narrative that XRP was designed for banks and cross-border payments is incorrect and was propagated by "Bitcoin maxis."

Mekras explained that XRP was actually created to challenge the monopoly of banks and disintermediate them. He described XRP as a more efficient alternative to Bitcoin, with additional functionalities such as a decentralized exchange (DEX) and tokenized assets. The primary goal was to serve individuals and businesses, not financial institutions.

Mekras provided a historical account of XRP’s development, noting that it was built by three developers—David Schwartz, Arthur Britto, and Jed McCaleb. By June 2012, the XRP Ledger was live, but Ripple did not exist at that time. Later, Chris Larsen joined the project, and Ripple Labs Inc. was established under the name OpenCoin. Mekras emphasized that the supply of 100 billion XRP was created from the start, with no mechanism to create more.

Initially, Ripple Labs had no interest in working with banks or facilitating cross-border payments. Their original vision was to enable people to break free from the restrictions of financial networks like credit cards, banks, and PayPal. The founders of Ripple disliked banks and aimed to develop an open payments system and peer-to-peer credit network on the XRP Ledger.

However, Ripple changed its approach in 2014, pivoting toward payments and engaging with the banking system. Their goal was to create a level playing field for smaller banks and destroy the SWIFT’s cartel owned by the big ones. David Schwartz was inspired to work on the XRP Ledger partly because of a ban from PayPal, reinforcing the idea that the system was designed to free users from centralized financial intermediaries.

Mekras reiterated that the XRP Ledger was built for decentralized finance and was primarily meant for individuals and businesses that wanted alternatives to traditional banking. He argued that XRP was designed to address high fees, transaction delays, and censorship imposed by centralized entities. Mekras concluded that anyone who claims otherwise is either misinformed or deliberately misleading for their own interests, emphasizing the power of decentralized solutions.

Mekras’s statement challenges the perception that XRP was created as a tool for banks and cross-border payments, instead asserting that it was originally designed as a decentralized solution to disrupt traditional financial structures. This clarification provides a deeper understanding of XRP’s intended purpose and its role in the broader financial ecosystem.