The Full Time Crypto Field Guides
XRP
For the People!
The Full Time Crypto Field Guides
A Full Time Crypto Field Guide
The XRP Field Guide
The ledger, the asset, and the company—kept apart.
Full Time Crypto
For the People! — Knowledge. Ownership. Freedom.
Before you start
What this is
Three names. Do not mash them together.
XRPL is the XRP Ledger, a public ledger. XRP is that ledger’s native asset. Ripple (Ripple Labs, Inc. and related companies) is a company that builds products and holds a large amount of XRP. Those are related. They are not the same thing.
This book will not print “XRP is a security” or “XRP is not a security” as a holding. A 2023 district-court opinion is a record about particular sales. A 2024 judgment and injunction in that case still stand unless a later primary says otherwise.
If a friend says “Ripple and XRP are the same,” stop them. That mix-up is how beginners get lost.
Educational information only. Not financial, investment, legal, tax, or trading advice. Dates, supply figures, and court records in this book are taken from the sources listed at the back. If a fact is not sourced, it is not printed as a fact. Unverified items stay open.
How this book is built
Contents
Every Full Time Crypto Field Guide uses the same spine of parts, in this order. Extra pages appear only when this coin actually has them.
The birthday
Day the coin was born
No exact genesis day is verifiable
“Launched June 2012” is the most repeated XRP date, and the primaries do not support it as a network launch. xrpl.org dates June 2012 to code completion. The oldest ledger anyone can still read closed 1 January 2013.
| Event | Date | What that date is |
|---|---|---|
| First commit (“newcoin”) | 14 October 2011 | rippled commit “first”, author jed. |
| Code development finished | June 2012 | xrpl.org timeline: Schwartz, McCaleb, and Britto finished code development. That is code, not a public network. |
| Founder says not public yet | 11 September 2012 | Jed McCaleb on Bitcointalk: “We aren't ready to release details of the project.” |
| Oldest readable ledger | 1 January 2013, 03:21:10 UTC | Ledger 32570. Ledgers 1–32569 were lost to a server bug. Exact genesis day: UNVERIFIED. |
The XRP Ledger's code was completed in June 2012. Its surviving ledger history begins with ledger 32570, which closed on 1 January 2013. Ledgers 1–32569 were lost to a server bug, so no exact genesis date is verifiable. This book will not fill that gap.
XRPL docs describe the lost history as “approximately the first week” in one place and “the first two weeks or so” in another. Either figure puts genesis in December 2012, not June 2012. David Schwartz: you can trace back to ledger 32,570; all history after the beta was opened is available.
One hundred billion XRP were created at ledger creation. XRP is not mined. Transaction costs destroy a small amount of XRP to deter spam.
People and projects
Who is behind it
Engineers of the ledger: Jed McCaleb, Arthur Britto, David Schwartz. Company founders in the Torres opinion include Britto, Christian A. Larsen, and McCaleb. Chris Larsen joined around company formation.
At creation, 100 billion XRP; founders retained 20 billion; 80 billion went to Ripple. Official wording: a gift in exchange for Ripple developing on the ledger. Ripple’s 2017 escrow is company inventory, not protocol minting.
The XRPL Foundation is a separate nonprofit (24 September 2020). The XRP trademark moved from the company to the Foundation. Ripple runs 1 of the recommended validators. Ripple is not the ledger owner.
Place and lineage
Where it came from
The repo’s first commit is under the name “newcoin.” The company went NewCoin → OpenCoin → Ripple Labs → Ripple. Early naming collision is historical: the ledger was once called Ripple; the asset took the ticker XRP with the ISO 4217 X prefix for non-national currencies.
In May 2018 the community adopted a new “X” symbol to differentiate the asset from the company’s triskelion logo.
Keep four names apart when you can: the ledger, the company, the asset, and the Foundation that now holds the mark.
Keep these separate
What it is and is not
It is
- XRP: the native asset of the XRP Ledger.
- XRPL: a public ledger that uses a validator consensus protocol, not proof-of-work mining.
- Ripple: a company that participates in the XRP ecosystem and has its own products and lawsuits.
It is not
- A mined coin like bitcoin.
- The same object as Ripple the company.
- A thing this book will label “a security” or “not a security” as if that were a single eternal holding.
The machine
How it works
- Agreement method
- Validator consensus. Servers compare proposals from validators they trust and validate a ledger version when enough agreement is reached. Not mining. Not Ethereum-style proof of stake rewards.
- Units
- XRP. Accounts also need a reserve. Some destinations need a destination tag.
- Issuance
- 100 billion XRP created at inception. Not mined. Small amounts are destroyed as transaction cost. Ripple’s escrow and sales are company inventory events, not a new mining schedule.
A submitted payment is not finished until it appears in a validated ledger with a success code.
Issued currencies and trust lines are extra objects. They carry issuer risk. They are not “free XRP.”
Fees can rise when the network is busy. The fee is destroyed, not paid to a miner.
A payment, in order
- A wallet signs and submits a transaction.
- Validators propose the next ledger.
- Servers accept a validated version when the consensus rules are met.
- The result code tells you whether the payment succeeded.
Keys, not cookbooks
How you send and hold it
The coins are recorded on the network. The wallet holds the secret that can move them. If someone else has that secret, they can usually move the coins.
A recovery phrase is a list of ordinary words that can rebuild the keys. Nobody who is helping you should need it. A support chat, a giveaway, or a “wallet check” that asks for it is trying to take the coins.
Custodial accounts (an exchange or app that holds the keys for you) can freeze, limit, or lose access. Self-custody gives you control and the full job of backup. Neither choice is magic.
This chapter is not a crime cookbook. It does not teach mixing, tumbling, fake identities, or how to hide funds from a lawful process. It teaches you not to donate your keys to a stranger.
Many exchanges share one deposit address and use a destination tag to know which customer to credit. Missing the tag can delay or complicate a deposit.
Keep enough XRP for the account reserve. The reserve is a protocol amount, not a tip.
Safer habits
- Download wallet software only from a site or store listing you found yourself, not from a message.
- Write the recovery phrase on paper or another offline backup. Do not photograph it, email it, or type it into a website.
- Send a tiny test first. Confirm the network, the asset, and the destination.
- For a company account, turn on a second factor that is not only a text message if you can.
- Stop if anyone asks for the phrase, a remote-control app, or a “verification deposit.”
- Copy the destination tag exactly when a service shows one.
- Confirm you are sending native XRP on the XRP Ledger, not a wrapped token.
This book does not tell you how to hide funds, evade a law, or defeat an investigation. A wallet lesson is about not losing your own keys—not about becoming invisible.
Read this twice
What can go wrong
Missing destination tag
A valid-looking payment can still be hard for an exchange to credit.
Company/ledger mix-up
A Ripple press release is not a protocol guarantee.
Issued assets
A token on XRPL can be frozen or become worthless if the issuer fails. That is not XRP the native asset.
Legal headlines
Reading a tweet about a lawsuit is not the same as reading the opinion.
United States readers only
Law and tax notes
These notes are for United States readers only. Other countries have different rules.
The Internal Revenue Service treats convertible virtual currency as property for federal tax purposes. That is the starting point in IRS Notice 2014-21. Later IRS pages, including the virtual-currency frequently asked questions, expand on reporting. They do not turn this book into tax advice.
Selling crypto, trading one crypto for another, or using crypto to pay for goods or services can be a taxable event. Receiving crypto as wages, as a trade or business payment, or in some airdrop or hard-fork situations can also create income. See Notice 2014-21 and Revenue Ruling 2019-24 for the IRS’s own words on forks and airdrops.
Keep records: date, amount in U.S. dollars, what you received or spent, and which service or wallet you used. A lost key is not automatically a deductible story you can invent later.
A listing, an exchange product, or a court remark about someone else is not your tax result.
On 13 July 2023, Judge Analisa Torres issued a summary-judgment opinion in SEC v. Ripple Labs, Inc., 20 Civ. 10832 (AT) (S.D.N.Y.). The court analyzed four transaction categories separately. Institutional Sales: SEC wins. Programmatic Sales, Other Distributions, and the executives’ personal sales: defendants win. Footnote 15: the Court holds only that Ripple’s sales of XRP to the Institutional Buyers were offers and sales of investment contracts. Footnote 16: secondary-market sales were “not properly before the Court.” This book will not flatten that into “XRP is not a security” or “XRP is a security.”
Final judgment, 7 August 2024, ECF 974: a permanent injunction against violating Securities Act § 5 and a civil penalty of $125,035,150. Both 2025 requests to dissolve it and cut the penalty to $50 million were denied (ECF 984, 15 May 2025; ECF 989, 26 June 2025). SEC Litigation Release 26369, 7 August 2025: appeals dismissed; “that final judgment will remain in effect.” A private settlement ask is not an order.
Hinman’s 2018 speech is not a holding, and it is not about XRP. Citing it in an XRP chapter is doubly wrong: wrong instrument, wrong kind of document.
Your own purchase on an app is not automatically the same fact pattern as a paragraph in that opinion.
This is not legal or tax advice. Rules change. Read the linked primary pages and talk to a licensed professional about your own facts.
This coin’s extra pages
XRPL, Ripple Inc., and XRP
Say the three names out loud. XRPL is the ledger. XRP is the asset. Ripple is the company.
Ripple can hold XRP, sell XRP, and write software that uses XRPL. None of that turns the public ledger into a department of the company.
When a headline says “Ripple won” or “Ripple lost,” ask: won what motion, about which sales, in which court, on which date? Then open the PDF. The 7 August 2024 judgment imposed a $125,035,150 penalty and an injunction that, as of the 7 August 2025 Commission release, remains in effect.
Write it down
NOTES
Write the three names XRPL, XRP, and Ripple in your own words. If you cannot, do not send money yet.
More room
NOTES
Words used in this book
GLOSSARY
Read these before the check-the-terms pages. A word is only useful if you can say it back in your own words.
- XRP
- The native asset of the XRP Ledger. Not the company.
- XRPL
- The XRP Ledger. The public network.
- Ripple
- A company (and related entities). Not the ledger.
- Destination tag
- An extra number some services need so they know which customer to credit.
- Reserve
- XRP that must stay in an account for the account or its objects to exist.
- Trust line
- A ledger object for holding an issued (non-XRP) asset. Issuer risk applies.
- Validated ledger
- A ledger version the network has agreed on. Submission alone is not this.
- Howey
- The U.S. Supreme Court test often used to ask whether a contract is an investment contract. This book does not apply it for you.
Check yourself
CHECK THE TERMS
Circle one answer. The answer key is on the next pages. Do not peek until you have tried.
-
XRP is the same thing as Ripple the company.
- True
- False
- Only on weekdays
-
Is XRP mined?
- Yes, like bitcoin
- No. The supply was created at genesis
- Only by Ripple
-
This book’s holding is that XRP is not a security.
- Yes, we print that
- No. We refuse that slogan as a holding. Torres split four transaction categories
- Only after 2024
-
A destination tag is…
- Your password
- An extra identifier some receivers need
- A mining reward
-
What does this book print as the XRP Ledger’s “launch”?
- A single day in June 2012
- June 2012 is code completion; oldest readable ledger closed 1 January 2013; exact genesis day unverified
- 2009
-
The 7 August 2024 judgment…
- Was vacated by a $50 million 2025 deal
- Imposed a $125,035,150 penalty and an injunction; both 2025 dissolve requests were denied
- Held that XRP is not a security
-
Transaction fees on XRPL are…
- Paid to miners
- Destroyed to deter spam
- Refunded by Ripple
-
An issued token on XRPL is the same as XRP.
- Yes
- No. Issued assets have issuer risk
- Only if the logo is a diamond
-
Who should get your recovery phrase?
- Ripple support
- Nobody
- A validator
After you try
ANSWER KEY
- B. False XRP is the asset. Ripple is a company.
- B. No. The supply was created at genesis No mining subsidy.
- B. No. We refuse that slogan as a holding. Torres split four transaction categories Institutional sales: SEC. Programmatic, other distributions, executive sales: defendants. Footnote 16 left secondary markets aside.
- B. An extra identifier some receivers need Shared deposit addresses use tags.
- B. June 2012 is code completion; oldest readable ledger closed 1 January 2013; exact genesis day unverified Ledgers 1–32569 were lost.
- B. Imposed a $125,035,150 penalty and an injunction; both 2025 dissolve requests were denied ECF 974 stands. LR 26369: the final judgment remains in effect.
- B. Destroyed to deter spam The cost is destroyed.
- B. No. Issued assets have issuer risk Trust lines are different objects.
- B. Nobody Keys are keys.
Check our work
Sources
Primary pages first. In-repo research packs under docs/field-guides/ were used as source wells. Payhip product blurbs were not used as facts. If a pack left a gap UNVERIFIED, this book leaves it open.
- XRPL history (June 2012 = code completion)
- XRPL consensus
- XRPL full history / lost ledgers 1–32569
- XRPL transaction cost
- XRPL reserves
- Jed McCaleb, Bitcointalk, 11 Sep 2012 (not public yet)
- Torres summary judgment, 13 Jul 2023
- Final judgment ECF 974, 7 Aug 2024 ($125,035,150)
- SEC Litigation Release 26369 (7 Aug 2025)
- IRS Notice 2014-21
