The June 2025 Revelation
On June 30, 2025, during a casual Twitter exchange about changing his header image, David Schwartz posted an authentic portion of early commit logs. He explained that he and Arthur Britto "coordinated frequently" and "pushed commits very frequently, even if they didn't compile."
"That's a real portion of the commit tree for rippled. It was carefully chosen to look as bad as possible. Because Arthur and I coordinated frequently, we also pushed commits very frequently, even if they didn't compile, so we could talk about what we were doing at that moment." - David Schwartz on the commit tree image
Ripple Built XRP in Real-Time Chaos
In the early days, Ripple's codebase wasn't a polished, version-controlled product. It was a chat room for rapid-fire collaboration. Schwartz and co-founder Arthur Britto often committed incomplete code just to keep pace with one another.
"The logs from this chaotic phase show usernames like JoelKatz (Schwartz), Britto, and MJK. Schwartz noted that the commit stretch in the image was particularly unruly because both he and Britto were modifying nearby components at the same time - a scenario they usually tried to avoid." - TradingView / Coinpedia Report
This revelation offered the crypto community its first glimpse into a previously unknown core developer. Multiple sources described it as providing "a rare glimpse into Ripple's origin story" with "previously unknown details" about XRP's development.
Inadvertent Discovery
Schwartz called it a "chaotic" commit tree from rippled's early development - revealing more than intended.
Global Impact
News sources worldwide reported on the discovery of XRPL's mysterious "fourth founder" - a figure never before mentioned publicly.
Overshadowed Mystery
Arthur Britto's simultaneous return to social media after 14 years of silence may have overshadowed the MJK discovery.