Forget OpenCoin and Ripple for the moment, is a trust based system the right way to go in redefining the global transaction system?
Trust is only necessary for dealing with other currencies than XRP (or with stocks, commodities etc), which has no counterparty risk inside the Ripple system. I think the great thing about Ripple is that it is a potentially decentralised bridge between fiat and crypto, which is exactly what we need to make the transition from fiat to crypto and to facilitate competition between crypto currencies.