Quote from: mmeijeri on May 11, 2013, 01:47:14 PM

Releasing "excessive" amounts of XRP would not impact the reliability of the Ripple system. If XRP tanks, there is no reason to start distrusting the USD balances. Reliability is a function of the source code (and the availability of independent validators, wider adoption etc), not of OpenCoin's "monetary policy".

I will spare over quoting just focus on this; as I think it shows we fundamentally disagree on the premiss that XRP and Opencoin have no affect on Ripple...

I think to say that "what Opencoin does with their XRP will have no impact on the Ripple system" ignores completely human nature and human history.

Even in recent months and years we've seen perfect examples of people seeing panic within other sectors and applying that same panic to their own sector. When you see Cyprus, and yet this causes people in Spain and Italy to start worrying...although there was absolutely no evidence that similar government action was planned.

The difference is that in Cyprus the government is able to close down the banks and say "You can only withdraw 100EUR per day" and prevent a full scale melt down. In ripple all there is no overseeing body to stop the panic, and the gateways would fall like dominoes.

For example:
- Opencoin sells some XRP and brings the price of XRP down too fast
- People start to get nervous about Ripple, they start to withdraw a portions of their holdings from Ripple to be safe
- The unusually high withdraw volume hits some of the gateways hard; the ones that did not have enough reserves to cover the withdrawals
- People from the tapped out gateways are now bringing their IOUs to other gateways, these gateways either fold too, or block these IOUs causing further panic
- Everyone would be trying to cash out before their gateway went down...why risk having any money in Ripple when you could cash out and have the exact same amount if your own wallet
- End result you have a Ripple system filled only with bad debt; sure some people, who held IOUs from good gateways, managed to get out unharmed, but they would "get out" none the less
- I think at this point confidence in the system would be so badly shattered that people would never put money back into it (even the people who got out unharmed)

Now that is a "Ripple" effect Cheesy

And please don't say something stupid like "This is a good thing, it keeps people honest".