Maybe there are many nodes but their solution to the byzantine generals problem is the same one that has been used for thousands of years, central authority. If the ripple foundation was ever compromised than ripple would not be able to continue without them. That is precisely the problem that bitcoin solved and ripple unsolved.
Please expand?
I'm not a Ripple expert, but I believe the keyword is "distributed". Big difference. If they could claim decentralized, they would. My understanding is that all transactions on the Ripple network depend on trust relationships between gateways, which act as the authority.
Here's an article I found helpful when trying to understand Ripple:
http://blog.coinsetter.com/2013/04/29/virtual-currency-trading-wars-bitcoin-versus-ripple-xrp/Gateways deal with all the govt regulations and the issuing of IOUs into the ripple network. Once in the ripple network, all the trades, etc. are done via consensus of distributed rippled servers. The gateways are not directly involved in ripple network transactions other than redemptions.
Not sure of the number of non-RL servers, but my guess is around 100 total rippled servers are running.
James
Ah, so the trust relationship is between the ripple servers. Got it. So, if the server operators (Ripple Foundation, governments, banks?) ever collude to come to a consensus that supports a dishonest transaction, there would be no way to prove otherwise, because the transaction confirmation depends on their consensus rather than a decentralized processing of the blockchain?
So the difference between Ripple and all truly decentralized cryptocurrencies is that all Ripple users have to trust the people who control the servers (i.e. the Ripple Foundation). A true crypto like Bitcoin or Nxt is entirely trustless in operation.
I think there should be an article on this in the Nxt wiki, because once our decentralized exchange comes out, a lot of people will be asking what the benefit over Ripple is.
*EDIT* This post is still rather confused on the issue. jl777 explains further a bit later on.