Ripple honorary CTO David Schwartz shared the early history of the XRP Ledger and AI + crypto news at the XRP Vegas event on May 1–2, 2026. Designed for sustainable payments, the ledger is now exploring social credit functions through trust lines. t54ai’s Chandler Fang highlighted agent economies, including the x402 payment services launched in February 2026, which enable AI agents to transact in XRP. New token listings are also gaining momentum across the broader crypto space.CoinDesk reports:

A veterinarian and XRP Ledger validator shared highlights from the just-concluded XRP Las Vegas event, a two-day XRP gathering held from April 30 to May 1.

One of the highlights of this event is a fireside chat with David Schwartz, Chief Technology Officer (Emeritus) of Ripple Labs, one of the original architects of the XRP Ledger.

ripple cto xrp ledger vision - Ripple Honorary CTO Shares the Early History of the XRP Ledger and Its AI Vision

In 2011, David Schwartz, Jed McCaleb, and Arthur Britto began developing the XRP Ledger (XRPL). Inspired by Bitcoin, they set out to create a better version that overcame its limitations, aiming to launch a more sustainable digital asset built specifically for payments.

ripple cto xrp ledger vision - Ripple Honorary CTO Shares the Early History of the XRP Ledger and Its AI Vision

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A fireside chat with David Schwartz on $XRP in Las Vegas. There are many fascinating stories about the founding of Ripple.

He also mentioned his new idea about artificial intelligence: breaking the barrier to using social credit features on the XRP Ledger by spreading trusted lines of issued assets among people.

Men... https://t.co/73nCt7ajt3pic.twitter.com/h75SgXKGiW

— Vet (@Vet_X0)May 1, 2026

The XRP Ledger was first launched in June 2012. Shortly thereafter, the three individuals, along with Chris Larsen, founded NewCoin in September 2012, which was soon renamed OpenCoin and is now known as Ripple.

Schwartz, who has been at the forefront of innovation since the birth of XRP, remains the authoritative voice on the XRP story.

At the XRP Vegas event, Schwartz shared early anecdotes about the founding of Ripple. He also discussed a new idea leveraging AI to break down barriers by using XRP Ledger’s social credit functionality to create a ripple effect of asset trust lines between people.

XRP event focuses on artificial intelligence

Chandler Fang, co-founder and former head of product at t54ai, shared insights on introducing the agent economy to Las Vegas at the XRP Las Vegas event. In February this year, x402 payment service provider officially launched on the XRP Ledger, enabling AI agents to pay for services using XRP. XRP allows usage of RLUSD without requiring API keys or accounts.

AI agents are shifting from providing recommendations to taking actions, requiring payment for APIs, hiring other agents, managing balances, settling tasks, and acting on behalf of users—something that requires more than just a wallet. It needs a layer of trust, including agent identity verification, risk assessment, credit mechanisms, and accountability systems in case of issues.

The party emphasized the vision of implementing the next layer on XRPL to make agent-native transactions sufficiently trustworthy for scaling.