Quote from: hypostatization on February 14, 2014, 01:35:46 AM

Quote from: LiquidNitrogen on February 13, 2014, 09:50:35 PM

alright, thanks. I guess I will just avoid ripple altogether.

Ripple was perceived as a threat to Bitcoin when it launched, and an attack campaign ensued. A reputed scammer played a pivotal role. Ripple threatened his centralized Bitcoin businesses, inputs.io in particular. He created an attack site that is widely quoted, despite being inaccurate and outdated.

Here is what an actually centralized Ripple competitor looks like:

https://www.klickex.com

Paypal is another example of a centralized system that implements a subset of Ripple functionality.

A good way to look at it is: Ripple picks up where Bitcoin leaves off.

Bitcoin is beautiful, but relies on centralized endpoints for anything that occurs off the block chain. Ripple is an open distributed currency-agnostic protocol and network for enabling payment and exchange that begins at those centralized endpoints, and provides a distributed network between those endpoints and end users. Aspects of both systems are subject to centralization, and they solve for the concerns of centralization at different levels; they are complementary.

Ripple Labs is transparent about all of this---no scam.

A lot of people do not realize that Ripple is being designed to operate transparently, in addition to direct usage. Via the Federation protocol, it should be possible for future users to make payments with their preferred currency, without ever needing to deal directly with IOUs or Ripple itself. It will act as a pass-thru in those use cases. It is a distributed near real time cross-currency open payment and exchange network and protocol that you do not need to even be aware of using.

Low friction cross-currency payment and exchange ability is essential to supporting a more open future.

MtGox is not, and the community needs to fight centralization.

Here is a great write up from Manu Sporny of the W3C: pdf. He discusses the future of open payments, and pays complement to both Bitcoin and Ripple. About W3C.

Since I have just found out about Ripple, I'd rather these noobs be brain-washed by a scammer instead of pushing the price up for me Tongue

BTW you trade within the client which can be downloaded from Ripple.com or Peercover.com which is a lot more user friendly.