why don't you specifically address the concerns everyone is voicing here? like with some facts? i'll be happy to be educated but no one seems to be providing any specific details, implementations, or code to convince us otherwise.
Here's the problem: TradeFortress and his ilk are completely irrational when presented with facts regarding Ripple. There are plenty of posts by David Schwartz, chief cryptographer at OpenCoin, all over the forum (he goes by "JoelKatz") answering all these questions but they get ignored.
The main flaw in the "logic" of thinking Ripple is a scam is on the one hand claiming that they are going to get rich off XRP but then saying that Ripple is useless and only exists to defraud the public. It should be obvious that these are mutually exclusive possibilities. It is clearly in OpenCoin's best interests to follow through on their promises, and to make sure that the software lives up to all of its claims - to do otherwise, would undermine any potential value of XRP (the built-in currency).
People like TradeFortress would have us believe that OpenCoin wants to "control the centralized Ripple software" so they can make a lot of money. This makes no sense; How will they convince the public to buy XRP if the software is centralized and under their control? I'd be willing to bet that OpenCoin wants to release their source as soon as possible. Having control over Ripple is actually a liability. As long as the source is closed and OpenCoin controls the network, XRPs can never appreciate fully and Ripple is vulnerable to attacks from governments.
The real reason that people dislike Ripple is because there is something...lets call it a certain "stink" that comes from the idea that they gave themselves all of the currency, and get to decide how it is handed out. It is an affront to our sense of fairness. Bitcoin people in particular, dislike a premine. Given the experience of alt coins and their pre-mines, it is definitely reasonable to approach Ripple with a huge amount of skepticism.
What separates intelligent people from primates like TradeFortress is that the intelligent person listens to all the voices and draws their own conclusion from the information available (incomplete as that may be) instead of allowing their decisions to be ruled purely by emotion.
In my opinion, the OpenCoin developers deserve to get rich beyond belief if they deliver on the promises of their system. Ripple could be superior to Bitcoin in so many ways. Near instant confirmations, no problems with micro-transactions, no wasted resources going to mining, and no way to rewrite history via 51% style attacks. Plus it integrates better with the traditional financial system and oh hey, it has a built in distributed exchange. The benefits to society of such a system are so enormous - why shouldn't they get paid?
In fact, I much prefer that the Ripple software is developed by a for-profit company. Since they have a way to make money, they can pay programmers. They can hire PR firms, and lobbyists to make sure that wallet-holders best interests are represented. They can advertise, get investment capital, and make deals with banks. Compare this with Bitcoin, where the Bitcoin Foundation has to go begging for "tips" to pay the one developer.
With Bitcoin, if the core developers don't like a feature or they don't want to work on something that is important but boring they will tell you "it's open source, no one is stopping you from doing it yourself."
But with Ripple, in order for OpenCoin to make money they have to satisfy customers. That means they are more motivated to fix bugs. They will have actual milestones for the software. Release schedules. Paid Q/A testing. The OpenCoin business model is superior to the Bitcoin business model. Compare GIMP versus Photoshop. One is open source and developed by volunteers. The other one is the industry standard.
I'm still extremely bullish on Bitcoin. There is plenty of room in the cryptocurrency space for Bitcoin, Ripple, and many more future yet-to-be implemented systems. Ripple will complement Bitcoin and they will both enhance each other. Those who embrace Ripple will prosper, while those who foolishly ridicule it out of jealousy will end up missing the boat.
Disclaimer: I hold significant quantities of both Bitcoins, and XRPs. I'm holding for the longest time.
I'm new to this area so my thinking is highly undeveloped -- maybe 10% of the way there. However, it's lots of fun to think about. I appreciate your 3 step process to acceptance that you posted on another thread. So, I'd be interested in hearing your take on a couple of things in moving my own thinking along.
1. I don't think the real issue is whether the software "...lives up to all of its claims" Any monopoly/cartel can legally squeeze it's users day in and day out. That doesn't make it a desirable outcome -- and certainly not a point I would want something that would affect me directly to be premised on. To me, that's what the Ripple naysayers are concerned about at a global level.
2. Forget OpenCoin and Ripple for the moment, is a trust based system the right way to go in redefining the global transaction system? One only has to look at the history of banking and banking crises to see that trust based systems are unstable historically. Our most recent experience with this --which has led to the need for entire nations to fund bailouts to prevent the banking system from collapsing -- is only one in a long series of "banking" crises. Arguably, the real problem has been regulatory capture and not "free markets (trust)." Ignoring technology for the moment, is this the right solution to solve a chronic history of abuse? Can you point me to any articles that summarize the "literature" around trust based systems -- and yes I can use Google if needed but prefer not to reinvent the wheel wherever possible.
3. I have my own point of view about what the appropriate fee for innovation, much less providing a service, should be and it's not billions of dollars -- I think the capitalist system is broke in this respect. That however, is an aside from the merits of Ripple per se. Having said that, I don't believe the merits of an approach can be determined by the amount of funding it attracts or the fact that it is VC funded -- rather the opposite in fact. Having worked that field for years, I can promise you that they put on their pants the same way everyone else does in the morning and make the same number of mistakes -- just on a different scale.
4. While I recognize that emotions run high when people are invested in an issue, don't you think that eliminating the ad hominem attacks and focusing on the issues would be more productive in fleshing out the merits of this proposal -- I recognize that this is the internet and that is a wishful fantasy but what the heck I can put my own fantasy out there as well.
And finally, I do appreciate the time you put in to post here, I've learned a lot quite rapidly as a result.