{"id":54659,"date":"2025-10-24T13:01:36","date_gmt":"2025-10-24T13:01:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/?p=54659"},"modified":"2025-10-24T13:01:36","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T13:01:36","slug":"ripple-cto-schwartz-revisits-nsa-past-and-satoshi-speculation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/?p=54659","title":{"rendered":"Ripple CTO Schwartz Revisits NSA Past And Satoshi Speculation"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Ripple chief technology officer David \u201cJoelKatz\u201d Schwartz has resurfaced a years-long thread of speculation around Bitcoin\u2019s origins and his own pre-Ripple work with US government agencies, clarifying once again that he neither possessed \u201chigh level\u201d intelligence nor claims special insight into Satoshi Nakamoto\u2019s identity\u2014while acknowledging that a US intelligence provenance for Bitcoin is \u201cnot a terrible theory.\u201d<\/p>\n

The renewed attention follows a fresh exchange on X on October 23, 2025, in which Schwartz responded to questions about prior employment and nondisclosure obligations\u2014context that traces back to an October 24, 2022 thread where he weighed in on Satoshi debates and litigation risk tied to public claims about identity. \u201cThere is nothing defamatory about saying that Craig Wright<\/a> is not Satoshi, just as there is nothing defamatory about saying that I am not Satoshi,\u201d Schwartz wrote in 2022, adding, \u201cThere is nothing inherently wrong with not being Satoshi.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the same 2022 exchange, after community member @XRPcryptowolf joked \u201cDavid Schwartz is Satoshi confirmed jk lol\u201d and floated the notion that \u201cSatoshi is really the CIA or NSA<\/a>,\u201d the Ripple CTO replied: \u201cThat\u2019s not a terrible theory. If the NSA or the CIA happened to stumble on how to make bitcoin, it might make sense that they would implement and deploy it to eliminate the risk that someone hostile to the US would do it first and potentially made billions of dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ripple CTO Shuts Down Satoshi Claims<\/h2>\n

The 2025 follow-ups drilled into Schwartz\u2019s own past work and what, if anything, it implies. In response to a commenter\u2019s claim\u2014\u201cWell, you\u2019ve worked at the NSA, getting high level information, by your own words.\u201d The Ripple CTO flatly rejected the characterization, indirectly doubling down that he isn\u2019t (part of) Satoshi Nakamoto<\/a>: \u201cI never got anything even remotely resembling high level information. I had to certify that the thing I was working on would meet the NSA\u2019s requirements without even being allowed to see most of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

I never got anything even remotely resembling high level information. I had to certify that the thing I was working on would meet the NSA\u2019s requirements without even being allowed to see most of them.<\/p>\n

\u2014 David \u2018JoelKatz\u2019 Schwartz (@JoelKatz) October 23, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nHe then shared vignettes about the compartmentalization he encountered. \u201cOne requirement that I was allowed to see was that you had to be able to stop it from processing classified data if you lost control over it. I was puzzled\u2014if you lost control over it, by definition you can\u2019t stop it, right? It was explained to me that that\u2019s\u2026\u201d He also noted signage he wasn\u2019t permitted to have explained: \u201cThey wouldn\u2019t even tell me why there\u2019s little signs all over the place (generally on entrances or containers) that can be set to \u2018OPEN\u2019 or \u2018CLOSED\u2019 and what \u2018OPEN\u2019 and \u2018CLOSED\u2019 mean on those signs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schwartz further recounted how, at one point, he recognized the user interface of \u201cone thing I worked on\u201d not through briefings but \u201cbecause late one night I happened to have the Discovery Channel on and saw our UI on a screen.\u201d He clarified the lineage of that code: \u201cTo be precise, that was work I did (on the same core code) for NATO shortly before I adapted it for the NSA. I don\u2019t remember how I found out what the NSA was using it for. I don\u2019t think I should reveal the exact uses, but they\u2019re pretty boring.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked when his nondisclosure agreement would expire, he answered: \u201cI have no idea. They didn\u2019t let me keep a copy and I don\u2019t remember\u2014if I ever even knew. I just hope nobody really cares any more. Plus, I never really knew anything all that secret.\u201d<\/p>\n

The through-line between the 2022 and 2025 messages is clear: a willingness to treat state-origin hypotheses for Bitcoin as plausible without endorsing them. \u201cThere is nothing inherently wrong with not being Satoshi,\u201d the Ripple CTO emphasized in 2022. By 2025, his clarifications around the nature of his NSA and NATO work add color but not conspiracy: process-driven engineering inside a tightly siloed environment, limited visibility into end use, and no privileged window into intelligence secrets.<\/p>\n

At press time, XRP traded at $2.42.<\/p>\n

\"XRP<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ripple chief technology officer David \u201cJoelKatz\u201d Schwartz has resurfaced a years-long thread of speculation around Bitcoin\u2019s origins and his own pre-Ripple work with US government agencies, clarifying once again that he neither possessed \u201chigh level\u201d intelligence nor claims special insight into Satoshi Nakamoto\u2019s identity\u2014while acknowledging that a US intelligence provenance for Bitcoin is \u201cnot a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3,4,5],"class_list":["post-54659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-crypto","tag-doge","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=54659"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54659\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=54659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=54659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=54659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}