- Ripple, while an American company, does not own or control the decentralized XRP Ledger.
- XRP’s origins can be traced back to Canadian developer Ryan Fugger’s RipplePay project in 2004.
- The decentralized governance and global validator distribution of the XRP Ledger highlight its status as a global asset.
The question of whether XRP, the digital currency built on the XRP Ledger, is an American asset or not has provoked a lot of discussions in the cryptocurrency space. The OG of XRP is often tracked with Ripple, a centralized US company, but the distributed, global nature of the XRP Ledger tells of different ownership. To it, the roots of this project which was initiated by Ryan Fugger can be traced back to Canada and its development progressed after the setting up of the Ripple foundation.
Ripple Scope: Decentralized Asset, Centralized Company
Ripple is based in the United States and is responsible for XRP’s global push to become part of cross-border payments and associated financial services. However, Ripple owns and manages the XRP Ledger but XRP operates on the blockchain technology.
This distinction is important, especially because the responsibility for running the company’s activities is different from the ledger management responsibility. This characteristic rules out any kind of central authority, and again, underlines its global availability as a payment method.
The Canadian Connection: Fugger’s Vision
The development of XRP goes back to a Canadian developer, Ryan Fugger, who initially created a basic idea of RipplePay in 2004. RipplePay was to provide a decentralized environment for P2P financial transactions – this was the basis on which the evolution of XRP Ledger began. Later, Fugger’s creation was taken over by the founders of the Ripple Foundation, Chris Larsen and Jed McCaleb, who gave the project its current configuration and development.
XRP Ledger still runs on an independent server where its validators can be located in various countries further promoting decentralization. Fortunately,.validators are distributed globally in order to prevent any one country or entity from attempting to own the Ledger. Therefore, it is prudent to classify XRP as an international currency created to support cross border payments without association to any country.
Though Ripple originated from the U.S. and is related directly to XRP, the underlying technology behind the XRP ledger is of Canadian origins. Further, the mechanics of the XRP Ledger are distributed around the world. With these factors, decentralized governance makes XRP a global property, providing an interconnectedness with the world’s financial systems.