Ripple CTO: Arthur Britto's Account Not Hacked, He Himself Does Not Wish to Be a Public Figure

BlockBeats News, June 24, Ripple's Chief Technology Officer David 'JoelKatz' Schwartz posted confirming that today, "Ripple co-founder Arthur Britto tweeted on X for the first time in 14 years," and the account involved did not suffer an attack or leak. Arthur Britto's tweet contained a "face without words" emoji.

According to Cointelegraph, Britto, along with Schwartz and Mt. Gox founder Jed McCaleb, co-created the XRP Ledger launched in 2012 and later helped develop the blockchain's token, XRP (XRP). He also co-founded NewCoin with Schwartz, McCaleb, and Chris Larsen, which later became OpenCoin, eventually evolving into what is now Ripple Labs. He later moved on to an advisory role.

Britto is best known in the industry for his "mysterious" presence—no verified photos of him exist, he has never granted an interview or made a public statement (excluding this emoji tweet), seemingly deliberately staying out of the public eye. He is also listed as the founder and president of blockchain infrastructure firm PolySign. Business documents from the cryptocurrency exchange Bitstamp show that Britto served as a director in May 2014, then resigned in September 2015.

Britto's name has appeared in various U.S. court case documents, including the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) lawsuit against Ripple, but these documents only mention him as a co-creator of XRP. In 2015, he also sued McCaleb in a California court, alleging that McCaleb's creation of Stellar violated contract terms, claiming Stellar copied Ripple's code.

The Ripple team has explained that Britto chose to maintain privacy because the management work "may bring enormous pressure," and he is "introverted and extremely concerned about personal privacy," not wanting to become a public figure for personal reasons.