“What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet."
Why then do we call our platform Pepper. In 2015 we were searching desperately for a name. The developers had just a code-name to go by “Deep Blue”.
We had taken up our new offices on Wall Street. Right on western end of Wall Street sits Trinity Church, with its soaring Gothic spires and a stream of visitors looking for Alexander Hamilton’s last resting place. As I walked past it one day, I decided to read up the history of the church. The church itself is an active parish, has been active for over 300 years, and seen three rebirths.
Trinity church was first established in 1696 by an initial land grant of 6 years. In 1705 Queen Anne made the land grant to the church permanent. It is stated in Trinity’s charter of 1697 by King of England, William III, that the grant and conveyance of the rights, properties and privileges recited therein was made subject to the payment to the heirs and successors of the said William III of a yearly rent of “One Pepper Corne.”
Famously, on July 9 1976, Queen Elizabeth II was at Trinity to symbolically collect 279 years of back rent in the form of 279 pepper corns.
And there the name stuck. Pepper had always been a commodity used for international trade. And what better name for the platform
