David “JoelKatz” Schwartz, one of the original architects of the XRP Ledger and a former full-time CTO at Ripple, has joined the XRP Ledger Foundation as an honorary board member, adding a prominent technical voice to the organization’s stewardship work. The appointment comes as the Foundation is also presenting a refreshed operating team focused on engineering, community coordination, operations, and ecosystem engagement.
David Schwartz Joins XRP Ledger Foundation Board
The XRP Ledger Foundation announced Schwartz’s honorary board role in a post on X, framing the move as an addition to its long-term technical oversight of the network. “We’re honored to welcome David Schwartz @JoelKatz as an Honorary Board Member of the XRP Ledger Foundation. As one of the original architects of the XRP Ledger, David brings deep technical insight and a long-term perspective that will help strengthen the Foundation’s technical stewardship of the ecosystem. Welcome, David!”
We’re honored to welcome David Schwartz @JoelKatz as an Honorary Board Member of the XRP Ledger Foundation.
As one of the original architects of the XRP Ledger, David brings deep technical insight and a long-term perspective that will help strengthen the Foundation’s technical… pic.twitter.com/494o75hgLm
— XRP Ledger Foundation (@XRPLF) May 11, 2026
Schwartz’s move follows his departure from full-time work at Ripple, where he had long been one of the most recognizable technical figures associated with the XRP Ledger ecosystem. Responding to a user who asked why he left Ripple and whether he had sold his XRP holdings, Schwartz wrote: “I left Ripple because I had been working non-stop since the end of 2011 and felt it was time to stop doing this full time. I still have some XRP, but I’ve been drastically reducing my cryptocurrency holdings since 2013 because I have a psychological aversion to risk.”
In a separate exchange, Schwartz described a schedule that remains closely connected to XRP Ledger-related work despite no longer holding the same full-time executive role at Ripple. “I made a list of all the things I’m doing now, and it’s long. Board member at Ripple, advising Evernorth, running a large hub, honorary board member at XRPLF, going to XRPL events, and regular meetings with devs.” His comments indicate that the XRPLF position is part of a broader advisory and governance footprint across the ecosystem rather than a retreat from public technical engagement.
Honorary Role Adds Technical Stewardship Focus
The appointment lands shortly after the XRP Ledger Foundation introduced its new day-to-day team, giving the organization a more defined public structure around protocol, operations, and community work. In its team announcement, the Foundation wrote: “The XRP Ledger Foundation exists to support the XRP Ledger and everyone shaping it. Today we introduce the new team driving that work day-to-day – the people you’ll be hearing from, building with, and running into at events throughout the year.” Brett Mollin was identified as executive director, responsible for strategic direction and coordination with the board on long-term priorities.
The Foundation also named Denis Angell as chief technology officer, highlighting his prior contributions to XRPL code and protocol development. “His fingerprints are all over the XRPL already. Denis is one of the most prolific contributors to the XRPL codebase and has been deep in protocol work for years. He is transitioning from XRPL Labs to the XRPLF, where he will lead engineering: the technical direction of the Foundation’s contributions to the ledger, amendment work, and the standards that ship into production – all with XRPL’s core philosophies in mind.” That engineering mandate aligns closely with the stated rationale for adding Schwartz in an honorary board capacity.
The wider team includes Rene Huijsen as director of operations and Vet, also known as Hussein Zangana, as director of community. The Foundation said Huijsen brings prior experience as Ripple’s director of payment operations and work with the Bank for International Settlements’ Cross-border Payments Interoperability and Extension taskforce, while Vet will focus on community communications, validator and developer engagement, events, and ecosystem storytelling. For market participants and builders following XRPL governance, the key development is not a protocol change by itself, but a clearer institutional structure around the people influencing technical coordination, standards work, and public ecosystem engagement.
AI Transparency Note: This article was prepared with the assistance of an AI system based on the sources listed and was reviewed, edited, and approved by a human editor before publication. All quotes, data points, and factual claims are intended to be grounded in the cited source material; however, errors cannot be ruled out entirely.
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