Quote from: bitaccumulation on May 10, 2013, 10:34:52 PM

I think the hardest part for people when they approach Ripple, is that they are approaching it like a currency start-up (like Bitcoin). A new Bitcoin-like currency could be released open-source and no specific amount of users would be required to have it be used as a currency (in fact this happens every day on this sub-forum). However, when you are looking at something as a payment system that includes all currencies then adoption of the payment system is a priority and a requirement for it to be a success. And until that happens the currency inside that system is essentially worthless (it's only worth right now is speculative and for transaction fees for the small number of Beta testers).

The successful approach to each of these two scenarios is not the same.

that is probably because it has been presented as a currency start-up.

I've been doing some reading up and to me it seems like a payment-system (a la paypall) with some internal currency attached to it, which, compared to current banks/payment-methods, serves no one except the creators.

But anyway, I think there is a much larger problem: in Europe there already are payment systems that are fast, free and secure. However, it turns out to be very difficult to get one system going throughout Europe: every country has their own system (supported by banks that operate in that country). This is simply because it benefits the nations economy; if other countries accept the German system, then German webshops would benefit from that. So.. Spain/Italy have recently launched their own system (mybank). A few years ago IDEAL and Giropay (dutch / german) started to operate for EU, but other countries (banks) simply refused to accept it. It is too political.

So.... even if it works technically, politically it will fail.
Ripple will be born cripple (at least in Europe).