Toast Wallet--a free, open-source XRP wallet for Android, iOS, Mac, and Windows--announced on June 18th that it was shutting down, citing “abysmal treatment of community developers by Ripple.”
“Toast Wallet has been removed from App Stores in protest at the abysmal treatment of community developers by Ripple ,” a Twitter post by the wallet said. “Existing Toast installs will continue to work and funds are safe. We await a clear and transparent community developer support programme from xPring.”
According to XRP Arcade, Toast Wallet is a product of StarStone Limited, a New Zealand-based software company. Toast Wallet was launched in 2017 and had garnered 100,000 users by the end of that year.
”Abysmal treatment” may have referred to a lack of funding and planning from xPring
Toast Wallet did not elaborate on what this “abysmal treatment” may have been.
However, a report by XRP Arcade supposes that the accusations of “abysmal treatment” could be referring to a lack of funding for Toast through xPring, Ripple’s investment arm, which was briefly mentioned in Toast’s shutdown announcement tweet.
Citing unnamed sources, XRP Arcade said that Toast received a small development grant from Ripple in the past, and was eagerly awaiting further support from xPring, but more funding never came; at the same time, other XRP wallets allegedly received funding from xPring.
For example, October of 2019, xPring invested in another wheat-themed wallet known as BRD (Bread) wallet, a mobile wallet designed for consumer usage. Bread Wallet reportedly had more than 2.5 million users spread across 170 countries at the time that xPring invested in it.
xPring also reportedly invested in Netherlands-based XRPL Labs in February of 2019. Since the investment, xPring has also developed XUMM, a financial platform that includes a wallet and payment platform.
Wietse Wind, founder of XRPL Labs, tweeted in reply to Toast’s shutdown that “I'm really sorry to hear this :( Toast was the first XRP wallet I ever used. In consultation with @codetsunami, the creator of Toast, I'd like to share the procedure to migrate from Toast to XUMM. I don't want to come across as a vulture: I'm sorry to gain XUMM users this way.”
Finance Magnates reached out to Ripple and Toast Wallet for commentary; neither immediately responded. This article will be updated as comments are received.
