Re: The future of cryptocurrencies

re: Bitcoin, Darkcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, et al..

I was listening to a podcast yesterday with one of the Ripple guys. I know almost nothing about Ethereum but I'm assuming its similar to Ripple. That's to say, a massive system that makes it possible to transfer assets globally, be it currency, contracts, whatever.

Here's what I don't get. Why the need for a native Ripple currency inside this system, if the stated purpose is a system to make it safe for transfering BTC, dollars, etc.. What would be the point of the "native" ripple currency? What's the point of "Ethers" in ethereum? What's the point in having 500 different "altcoins"?

Err nope. Ethereum plays a complete different game on a complete new level.

Here please educate yourself:
http://forum.ethereum.org/
https://blog.ethereum.org/

Of course we don´t need 500 alts. That´s one thing Ethereum is about. A featurless platform instead of many altcoins, everyone with one special feature. An Ethereum you can build everything, and that very easy.

Do they still plan to use their own custom language?

I am not 100% sure, and maybe not uptodate, but I think they provide a costum lanuage for creating Apps and smart contracts.
But it should be easy to learn for coders with html, etc. skills.

But don´t cruzify me if I am wrong.

Maybe this articel helps a bit: http://etherscripter.com/what_is_ethereum.html

If you want to get deeper in it, you have to watch Vitaliks Videos or read his blogpost. But that´s kind of hard for a non-coder like you and me :-)