If Coke is USD, and Pepsi is EUR, then Bitcoin is New Coke and Ripple is a system of tubes that sprays any liquid you want to deliver into your friends' mouths. XRP would be the pressurized air that runs this system of tubes; you can trade bottles of this pressurized air but you can't drink it, only use it to send liquids throught the tubes. And you'd only let those you trust pour things into your mouth over the internet, so if you want give some raw milk to a friend of a friend in Japan, you pour the raw milk into the mouth of a mutual friend that you both trust, and he'll forward the raw milk to the guy in Japan. Excelsior!

Ripple is an innovative banking system made by people who don't understand the most basic facts about banking or finance. As such, even if it worked technically (which it probably won't, seeing how the geniuses behind MtGox came up with the world's most victim of its own success trade engine already) it is still guaranteed to drown us in lol.