Of course there's no mining involved, that would allow this "cryptocurrency" to actually be decentralised. While mining definitely isn't perfect, it sure beats a completely centralised operation like Ripple. Don't the devs own like half of all the Ripple in existence?
I mean sure, maybe Ripple is a useful tool for banks, but it certainly isn't a fucking crpytocurrency and, like banks, there's no reason to trust it.