Jed McCaleb’s 2014 Departure from Ripple Was Likely Part of a Strategy

Jed McCaleb's 2014 departure from Ripple sparked rumors, but was likely part of a strategy.

Jed McCaleb's departure from Ripple in 2014 has been the subject of much rumor and speculation. Many have come to believe that it was the end of McCaleb's involvement with the company, but what if that wasn't the case? What if Jed's split was a strategic move, part of a bigger plan to create a parallel blockchain system?

As one of Ripple's co-founders, Jed McCaleb was instrumental in designing the early framework of XRP, helping to build its architecture and contributing to Ripple's initial success. However, after some disagreements and a change in vision, Jed McCaleb left Ripple in 2014 and quickly started Stellar (XLM).

Now, many have come to believe that this was a breakup, but what if the timing tells a different story? What if it was a deployment?

And what if, instead of being competitors, XRP and XLM were two arms of the same global plan?

If we consider the time of McCaleb's departure, it coincides perfectly with Ripple's expansion into the world of institutional finance and global payment systems.

Moreover, if we look at the bigger picture, we can see that the year 2014 was also a pivotal year for the development of ISO 20022, a new messaging standard for financial institutions, which aimed to streamline cross-border payments and improve interoperability between different systems.

This initiative was being undertaken by bodies like the IMF, the BIS, and the WEF, who were discussing the future of payments and how to create a more seamless and efficient global financial system.

This suggests that perhaps McCaleb wasn't leaving; he was being deployed to launch the second half of a global payment solution, focusing on a different segment of the market and tying into the same pressing issues of interoperability and inclusion that the financial institutions were trying to solve with ISO 20022.

While Ripple's XRP is being utilized by major financial institutions and is focused on improving liquidity, enabling cross-border payments, and supporting central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) in the financial industry, Stellar's XLM is closely tied to humanitarian projects and is being used by the United Nations for blockchain-based aid and by Franklin Templeton for tokenizing assets.

Both projects are quietly securing powerful partnerships in their respective domains, working towards a common goal of facilitating a global payment network.

McCaleb's exit wasn't an accident; it was part of a well-timed plan. As Ripple focused on the institutional side, McCaleb's Stellar project set out to bring the power of blockchain technology to underserved communities, continuing the work they had started together.