Quote from: Maluridea on January 07, 2014, 02:25:50 PM

Ripple is indeed an extremely interesting system and I believe that one reason it is attracting so much interest is because it does not disrupt the whole financial eco-system. Ripples are as I understand it more akin to a payment network/system rather than a cryptocurrency. Unlike cryptocurrencies like BTC LTC etc. Ripple does not offer an alternate currency as much as it addresses a need to transfer currencies. As such it is extremely important for the long term viability of cryptos given how it allows for a merchant to take payment in local fiat whilst the buyer can pay with BTC.

Ripple handles payments, exchange, and also provides its own currency: XRP.

XRP may be used directly for transactions. It also serves infrastructure purposes, mitigating DDOS attacks and easing path finding for currency conversion.

Here is a solid introductory video on Ripple: http://vimeo.com/63784865

Similarly, this page is a great introduction for people who understand Bitcoin: https://ripple.com/wiki/Introduction_to_Ripple_for_Bitcoiners

Quote from: Maluridea on January 07, 2014, 02:25:50 PM

The way I see it, cryptos will not "revolutionize" the world by having actors switching currencies left and right. The switching costs are too high, it breaks established ecosystems controlled by VERY powerful players, and uncertainty is still too high for mainstream businesses to adopt cryptos of any kind. However, payment processing systems such as ripple, bitpay etc. will pave the way for their adoption.

In addition to handling payments, Ripple solves for currency switching. It does this while lowering costs, and without breaking established ecosystems. Ripples seeks to enable users on opposite ends of all transactions to use any currency they choose. A vendor accepting Yuan will eventually be able to be paid in Yuan by a buyer holding only DOGE.

Quote from: Maluridea on January 07, 2014, 02:25:50 PM

This is why I would like to see a crypto putting way more emphasis on business aspects.

As of yesterday, Ripple now accepts cash deposits via ZipZap: https://ripple.com/blog/ripple-now-multi-lingual-supports-cash-deposits-and-more/

Regarding early adopter diffusion of XRP (the internal currency), Ripple Labs has created a method to allow users to earn XRP in a manner similar to mining: https://www.computingforgood.org/

CureCoin and GridCoin are also worth checking out, if contributing to humanitarian computing projects appeals to you.