I consider myself a smart person. I understood Bitcoin with ease. I saw its potential quickly. But I don't understand how Ripple, more specifically Ripple.com, works. I'm slightly annoyed at their Wiki dumbing it down to a level that its mechanisms are obscured.

I'm not interested in knowing how can Ripple be used. I wish to know how it works. Can someone from Ripple come and explain? A long smart explanation, not a short "for dummies" sales pitch. And I don't want to read the code to understand it. Sorry, I don't have time for that.