In the end, the success or failure of Ripple is also in the hands of the major exchanges. Ripple has two exchanges now, if it gets 5 big ones, it will be half the way to success, whether we like that they get rich in the process or not. People that organize, take risks and the initiative will in many cases get rich in the process, sometimes with some abuses in the middle. Buy now a million XRPs, it will cost you about 10 btcs, not a big risk to try to get rich
. Of course, they can end up with no value at all.