Thanks for the kind words BillBags. I understand your perspective; I am a large holder of bitcoins and events like the current price decline don't worry me at all.

That said, I think there are 2 parallel movements about to happen: One is Bitcoin, and the other is the rise of a new type of Fiat banking. Call it crypto-banking if you must. Ripple kickstarted this movement and Stellar is a strong follow up. I am doing a thought experiment to explore if there is a different way of building Ripple. It would be great to have technical views from the excellent Bitcoin folk to help with the thought experiment.

Ripple is as much a challenge to the current banks as is Bitcoin. That is because it allows small startup banks to become competitive with big banks. It is a system by which lots of small fish can collaborate to challenge the big fish eventually. The genius lies in the Settlement mechanisms which reduce liquidity needs of small banks.

Hope you understand my perspective.