1/ After ~9 amazing years I’ve decided to wrap up my day job at @Ripple. Luckily, I’m not going far as I join the Board of Directors, where I’ll continue to provide input on company vision + strategy. I haven’t decided what’s next, but plan to continuing BUIDL in crypto :)
— Asheesh Birla (@ashgoblue) June 9, 2022
2/ In the past few days, I’ve had the chance to reflect on where we’ve come from and how much we’ve accomplished both as Ripple, and as an industry through some memorable moments and launches over the years.
— Asheesh Birla (@ashgoblue) June 9, 2022
3/ When I started…
— Asheesh Birla (@ashgoblue) June 9, 2022
Largest crypto exchange: Mt Gox vs Binance
Daily volume: $2m vs $70B
Market cap: $1.6B vs $1.3T
This is an early picture of the team in our first-ever office! pic.twitter.com/wVdBY7FySw
4/ 2013 – Within a few weeks of joining, Stripe tried to acquire us. Ultimately the deal fell apart shortly after this dinner at El Tepa Taqueria in SF, but who knows what crypto would look like today if Stripe had gotten into the industry in 2013. pic.twitter.com/8gjGjqu1Rv
— Asheesh Birla (@ashgoblue) June 9, 2022
5/ When he was at Bitcoin Magazine, Vitalik worked out of our office in Dec 2013. I remember him talking about early smart contract concepts. We made him an offer to be an intern at Ripple but couldn’t get the Visa sorted out, and he’d later speak at our first Swell conference. pic.twitter.com/aN4u3QBcsf
— Asheesh Birla (@ashgoblue) June 9, 2022
6/ 2013 - we piloted RipplePay, a functional credit card where you could use XRP to make everyday purchases, using the XRPL DEX to convert any currency in your XRPL wallet into USD. Unfortunately, no card network was willing to come within a 10-foot pole of crypto at the time. pic.twitter.com/2sy5cKTK9i
— Asheesh Birla (@ashgoblue) June 9, 2022
7/ When RippleNet first launched crypto liquidity in the market was too limited to support crypto-enabled payments at scale, so we laid the foundation for RN w/ fiat first, while continuing to iterate on a product that would also use crypto liquidity when the timing was right.
— Asheesh Birla (@ashgoblue) June 9, 2022
8/ In 2018, the timing was finally right for the first production ODL transaction (FKA xRapid). This was a huge milestone launching the first production cross-border use case that leveraged crypto at scale, despite lots of external skepticism.
— Asheesh Birla (@ashgoblue) June 9, 2022
9/ Also in 2018 - @hodges hosted an amazing crypto dinner in April with @twobitidiot, @DaveBalter, @GaryGensler and others. Selkis was a lot nicer in-person & Gary Gensler was interested in learning about the intersection of crypto and finance (🤔what happened?). pic.twitter.com/2aGgkrrZ8u
— Asheesh Birla (@ashgoblue) June 9, 2022
10/ Back to Ripple…I’m incredibly proud of the RN team as RippleNet continues to hit new milestones. In 2021, we previewed new alpha products like Liquidity Hub and RippleNet hit 1 billion in monthly volume. We’ve gone from 3 to 25+ payout markets for XRP-powered payments today.
— Asheesh Birla (@ashgoblue) June 9, 2022
11/ Lastly, I want to thank @chrislarsensf and @bgarlinghouse who gave me invaluable opportunities and many, many lessons learned along the way at Ripple. I’m honored to join the Board and continue being a part of the company. (Photo: Brad’s first day at Ripple) pic.twitter.com/zmsWtpazbq
— Asheesh Birla (@ashgoblue) June 9, 2022
12/ And finally to @MonicaLongSF – we started at Ripple in the trenches together just two weeks apart! I can’t think of anyone better suited to take the torch to lead the RippleNet team. pic.twitter.com/YgOkfgO4o3
— Asheesh Birla (@ashgoblue) June 9, 2022
I have just the thing for you. I just messaged you on LinkedIn.
— Paramendra Kumar Bhagat (@paramendra) June 9, 2022
The unofficial Head of Snacks title carries over to the new Board seat, right? RIGHT? pic.twitter.com/jq9pqiys4U
— Ripple (@Ripple) June 9, 2022
@ashgoblue You team up with me now, and I will topple Putin by Christmas. Russia's Democracy Movement will be tokenized. https://t.co/YaBK8rHUwV #russia #ukraine Please take a listen. This is my pitch.
— Paramendra Kumar Bhagat (@paramendra) June 9, 2022
— Paramendra Kumar Bhagat (@paramendra) June 9, 2022
