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Ripple CTO Emeritus David Schwartz has revealed the unexpected story behind an iconic XRP-themed T-shirt he wore at the Swell event, explaining how a technical milestone on the XRP Ledger became associated with a memorable price moment.
Schwartz, one of the original architects of the XRP Ledger (XRPL), was spotted wearing a T-shirt that showed a 'speedometer'-like inscription that pointed to 100, sparking curiosity among members of the XRP community.
X user @unknowDLT had asked Schwartz about the origin of the T-shirt he wore in an image that accompanied his tweet. "At this point, could you clearly explain what the T-shirt you're wearing means?" he asked.
Schwartz responded that the T-shirt was created to commemorate XRPL hitting 100 TPS. "When the T-shirt was commissioned, XRP was around 30 cents. By the time we got it, XRP was $1," Schwartz further explained.
The timing caused some members of the XRP community to assume the "100" on the shirt referred to XRP reaching a price of $1 rather than the network's transaction speed.
"So everyone thought that's what XRP at 100 meant and we just went with it," Schwartz added.
XRP Ledger throughput boost
In the X discussion, the Ripple CTO Emeritus did not share exact details on the time when the T-shirt was commissioned.
XRP also traded around 30 cents ($0.30) at several points in its price history, so it may be hard to know exactly when, in the context of the Ripple CTO Emeritus's post. A walk-through of the XRP Ledger throughput chronology may provide a hint.
When performance testing began in February 2015, the XRP Ledger sustained 80 transactions per second. Incremental improvements were made over time as opportunities were uncovered.
Between March and June 2015, the XRP Ledger sustained between 120 and 490 transactions per second. In October 2015, XRPL saw a major throughput boost to 525 transactions per second, and in the following year, this nearly doubled to 1,100 transactions per second.
In July 2017, XRP was demonstrated to sustain a throughput of 1,500 transactions per second, which remains so to this day.