Ripple almost brought Vitalik Buterin on board before he went on to create Ethereum, CTO Emeritus David Schwartz said at Ripple Swell. Schwartz told the audience that in the company’s earliest days, when it was likely still called OpenCoin, a young Buterin reached out to then-CTO Stefan Thomas. Ripple wanted to hire him, but a company must exist for at least six months before it can sponsor a US work visa, and Ripple had not reached that mark. Buterin instead stayed on Thomas’s couch until he had to leave the country. Schwartz joked that it was a shame, given what Buterin might have achieved had he joined Ripple. He added that Buterin pitched on-chain smart contracts, while Ripple’s founders preferred building a set of financial tools directly into the protocol.

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