Ripple CTO Schwartz supports the Spark token and registers for airdrop

• David Schwartz has registered for Spark’s airdrop and is showing support for the project. 
• Flare Networks has given reasons for Jed McCaleb’s exclusion from Spark distribution.

On December 12 this year, the within the XRP community highly anticipated airdrop for the Spark token will take place. As part of the utility fork, thousands of XRP accounts will receive the Spark token if they have completed the registration process or are holding XRP in a wallet of a supporting exchange.

As it became known yesterday, the airdrop has now received another prominent participant. One Twitter user has reported that Ripple’s CTO, David Schwartz, has activated his wallet for the snapshot. However, the user claimed that Schwartz is not eligible to receive Spark because he does not meet the conditions set by Flare Networks. According to Flare, addresses belonging to Ripple Labs employees or former employees of the company are not allowed. Due to this, the user wrote

(…) serious question about the Flare snapshot. Ripple employees (& certain ex) are not eligible yet I saw your JoelKatz wallet was activated for the snapshot. Can you clear this up? Smart XRP hodlers are suspicious about ‘redeeming’.

Ripple’s CTO responded to the user and stated that he “assumed” that he does meet the conditions. Schwartz stated that he is not and has not been an employee of Ripple Labs. Furthermore, the Ripple CTO stated that the main reason for activating his wallet is to support Flare Networks:

I assumed I was eligible for the drop because I’m neither Ripple Labs nor a previous employee of Ripple Labs. But I don’t know. I had a lot of reasons for registering, no one reason significantly stronger than the others. Show support, show it was safe, sell my tokens ASAP 4 $’s.

Ripple co-founder banned from Spark’s airdrop

Flare Network Twitter handle responded to Schwartz’s response by stating that they are “honored” by Ripple’s CTO’s participation in the airdrop. In that regard, Flare Networks clarified that Ripple employees and “almost all former employees” are eligible for the Spark distribution. One exception is Jed McCaleb.

As already announced previously by Flare Networks, McCaleb will not be allowed to participate in Spark’s airdrop. However, Flare Networks has only now announced details about the reasons for this decision. Flare stated that McCaleb’s participation could have a negative impact on users and the market:

We took the decision to exclude Jed as the consistent sales of XRP having a negative effect on the psychology of the market make it clear he is not an XRP supporter. Spark attributable to his XRP holdings are being distributed equally to all other valid claimants.

In addition, Flare Networks stated that there is no hostility to the co-founder of Ripple or Stellar Lumens, which he founded after he left the company. However, McCaleb has received a huge settlement in XRP, which he can sell for a limited amount over the next few years. The inventors of the Spark Token may want to avoid this selling pressure, which could have affected XRP for a long time.

Flare is intended to bring utility to the XRP Ledger – we reserve the right to structure the initiation of the network in the way we think necessary to achieve that objective.