Ripple CTO David Schwartz on XRP vs Bitcoin

Ripple CTO, David Schwartz, recently shed light on one of the fundamental distinctions between XRP and Bitcoin.

In response to an X post, Schwartz highlighted the main difference between XRP and Bitcoin’s supply dynamics. He stated:

> “The main difference in their supply is that, measured in common units (which is the only sensible way to measure two things you plan to compare), there is a lot more bitcoin than XRP.”

Schwartz clarified these points in a series of responses on X, aiming to address misconceptions regarding Bitcoin and XRP dynamics as well as their values. At the time of writing, Bitcoin was trading at $95,643, while XRP was at $2.59.

The Ripple CTO acknowledges that there are similarities and differences between XRP and Bitcoin but believes that a supply comparison between both crypto assets might be misleading.

• Maximum supply of XRP: 100 billion
• Maximum supply of Bitcoin: 21 million
• Current supply of Bitcoin (CoinMarketCap): 19.82 million BTC
• Current supply of XRP: 99.87 billion XRP

At current prices, the dollar supply of Bitcoin remains higher than that of XRP. Schwartz added:

> “Measuring in dollars, the supply of Bitcoin is greater than XRP. There is no meaningful sense in which Bitcoin is scarcer than XRP.”

How It All Started

In early 2011, three developers — David Schwartz, Jed McCaleb, and Arthur Britto — were fascinated with Bitcoin but observed the waste inherent in mining. They began developing the XRP Ledger (XRPL) to create a better version that improved upon Bitcoin’s limitations, aiming to create a digital asset more sustainable and developed exclusively for payments.

The XRP Ledger was first launched in June 2012. Bitcoin, however, came into existence years before this time. Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous creator of Bitcoin, released the whitepaper in 2008 before launching the network in 2009.

On Jan. 3, 2009, the Bitcoin network was launched, with Nakamoto mining the genesis block of Bitcoin (block number 0), which had a reward of 50 Bitcoins.