Tron Founder Shares Insights on Working For Ripple and Unsuccessful Attempt of ETH Founder

Tron Founder Justin Sun recently shared an experience on how he worked with Ripple, while Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin did not secure a role for other reasons.

The cryptocurrency industry has evolved significantly since its early years, from a relatively unknown space to a trillion-dollar market. However, not much is known about the events that took place in the very early years of the industry.

Tron founder Justin Sun recently shared one such “fascinating” story about his early experience in the crypto space. In a recent post, Sun revealed that he and now Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin sought job roles at blockchain startup Ripple.

While Justin Sun was able to secure a job at Ripple and worked there for “quite a long time,” Vitalik Buterin did not land an internship role at the company because of Visa issues. The unsuccessful attempt by Vitalik and Justin Sun’s work with Ripple forms part of a backstory for each founder’s journey in the blockchain ecosystem.

Reflecting on history is quite fascinating. Both @VitalikButerin and I have had interactions with @Ripple. Interestingly, I managed to secure a job at Ripple and worked there for quite a long time, while Vitalik ultimately did not participate in Ripple’s internship due to visa…

— H.E. Justin Sun 孙宇晨 (@justinsuntron) February 6, 2024

Notably, this is not the first time that reports have emerged linking Ethereum’s co-founder with Ripple. Evidence has surfaced in the past, revealing that the Ethereum co-founder borrowed certain concepts from Ripple to solve ETH network scalability issues.

Potential Timeline for Events

Although Justin Sun did not disclose the period when the event took place, considering the evolution of the crypto industry gives some clues. Ripple Labs, which was founded in 2012, launched way ahead of Ethereum (2015) and Tron (2017). 

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Hence, the job application period being spoken about by Justin evidently took place between 2012 and 2014, given that Ethereum development began in 2014. Justin Sun reportedly worked for two years at Ripple before moving on to build out Tron.

Meanwhile, fortunes have since changed for both founders, with Ethereum ultimately becoming the second largest blockchain project after Bitcoin and Tron always finding itself within and around the top ten cryptocurrencies.