XRP and SLL are also potential candidates.

You can buy them at bitstamp and kraken...

I don't use ltc but you could try your offer them at the ripple.com forums, it would get buried less easily.

Distributed and open to any newcomers.

You cannot set up your own node in Paypal's distributed network, you can set up one in Ripple's. You also might be able to get a banking license to play with the rich kids in fiat banking, though there is a significantly higher hurdle to jump.

Just like anyone in Bitcoin needs to use the Satoshi chain though, everyone in Ripple needs to use the OpenCoin/RippleLabs chain, maybe that's what you mean by "centralized"? With that logic though, Bitcoin would also be centralized, as is every currency around here, as they are all build on global consensus that has to start at some universally agreed point ("genesis block").

This is still just speculation on what you could mean with "centralized" - so please stop the "oh come on people - it's sooo obvious" talk and state some facts. I really don't like these ways of arguing since it was the same that people supporting pirateat40 were employing ("it is completely clear how he legitimately makes his money, just look at the hints all over the forum and read between the lines, duh! Just think for yourself!").

Did you actually do the things he asked you to? Posting an address here was not part of it...

Anyways, there is a giveaway of 2020XRP on Github too, so if you are a developer you might look into this as well.

OpenSource software exists right now running on servers and being available for listing and trading assets denominated in BTC using Open Transactions (via blinded tokens), Colored Bitcoins and Ripple. Also there are centralized (often closed source) exchanges that put a strong focus on crypto (e.g. MPOE where every trade etc. is signed with PGP keys so it is externally verifiable and auditable).

In contrast your idea, even though a nice one and probably relatively easy to implement, is NOT implemented anywhere that I know of, even in a test/beta scenario.

The problem with these decentralized exchanges is that there are few incentives to operate one. Ripple solved it by creating XRP and they get a lot of hate because of that. Colored Coins seems to piggyback as much as possible on Bitcoin, so it wouldn't really need much anyways besides a note on the company website to trade this asset and OpenTransactions... well I have yet to see someone even using them, though the software exist for years now.

We need people starting a security on ANY existing platform and stop about designing ideas on how to come up with yet another decentralized trading platform. The platforms exist for months and years already, it is just that issuers of securities seem to be more happy with using centralized websites than not-so-nice but secure and distributed exchanges. Similar issue like Chaumian blinded money (which was even being tested live) compared to PayPal (or bitcoin-qt vs. inputs.io). Their selling point is simply "trust us, then all you need is username + pwd". People care about simple more than about security and privacy, even(!) in the Bitcoin ecosystem!

0-conf Doublespends sind relativ einfach zu machen - Server in Japan oder US-Westcoast (z.b. Amazon) mieten, bitcoind aufsetzen und deine Transaktion1 an das Geschäft und eine 1/4 Sekunde vorher Transaktion2 an den Server am anderen Ende der Welt schicken.

Bitcoin erschwert das auch noch dadurch, dass Doublespends nicht weitergeleitet werden - solange du also nicht selbst mining betreibst, kriegst du die 2. Transaktion gar nicht mit.

Pruning könnte man so verstehen, dass man im Extremfall eben nicht alle paar Jahre/Monate/Wochen sondern jeden Block die Blockchain verwirft und nur die Daten aufhebt, die nötig sind um eine neue Blockchain zu starten. Bei Bitcoin wäre das das UTXO set - momentan ist es so ein paar 100 MB groß. Poorminer hat aber leider die Interna von Bitcoin noch nicht genug verstanden, aber zumindest sich schon mal Gedanken zur Verbesserung gemacht! Leider scheint er recht wenig darauf einzugehen, was wirklich stimmt und scheint auf mich etwas sehr überzeugt von seinen Theorien zu sein.

Not exempt, but it might be much closer than a Slovenian company registered in the UK with an Italian bank... or a japanese company founded by US-citizens with polish/french/no bank. Ideally your gateway is a bank or business in your jurisdiction, potentially even with a branch in your city.

OP is comfortable with giving his ID to a local bank who reports to who-knows-whom, while he is not comfortable to send it to the EU with much stricter privacy laws, because it is out of his jurisdiction. Using ZipZap for example, he would be easily able to deposit and trade USD on his "home turf".

Ich glaube nicht, dass sipa hier mitliest... vielleicht ja doch (immerhin ist er Belgier), aber generell wirst du ihn eher via mail oder so erreichen. Anonsten einfach ein bisschen warten, ich nehme an, er passt seine Graphen alle paar Wochen sowieso an.

WTF?!

Might work with the "oracle" style transactions, but then you (or your customers) trust the oracle again...

An oracle that just broadcasts the current UNIX timestamp should be fairly easy to deploy and validate I guess.

I would also advice for Ripple for the following reasons:

1) API is relatively straightforward
2) Server and client code available + network is running right now
3) Transaction reversal is nigh impossible

Google spreadsheets would for example score negative on all three of these things - whoever owns that spreadsheet can change balances at will.
Ripple does not really use passwords at all with the current system, the current client at Ripple.com is just a way to access and decrypt your private key that is stored encrypted. This means that there is nothing that can be changed without revealing the private key to the actual operators of that service (which is something they don't want).

Another (though also easily manipulated) alternative would be to use the program ledger (ledger-cli.org) and use this to create your ledger.

In a lot of jurisdictions, you need to be able to name your investors. Decentralized does not mean "only unknown/pseudonymous/anonymous share holders" though - companies likely would require people to submit KYC data + a bitcoin address where shares are to be stored. Then they could publish a list of addresses known to them and customers can trade among each other as much as they want. Any share transferred to an unknown address is assumed to be invalid.

Discussion here is useless anyways - submit KYC info to them, contact their support or write it off... it is not the first time that BTC customers are asked for "doxx or go home" nor will it be the last. If you keep a balance on a service but do not care about their ToS, you are up for trouble, just as you found out right now.

"Only" comes from the only mention on where you will be notified: "through your account", not "through the means of reaching you entered on your account". They even specifically write in their ToS that they consider e-mails as an insecure medium (which is true).

Why should Bitstamp trust your bank, that for all they know you could have submitted fake documents to a decade ago? If someone from MI5 asks them about YOUR account, they need to show YOUR data, not say "well, he has a bank in the US, maybe ask them...".

Maybe you should link to the website (and the bounties/repositories?) in the OP!

Create a folder named "db" next to rippled... or enter a location that actually exists in your rippled.conf file.

Because Bitcoin supports at max. ~7 transactions (or less, if they are complex) per second. Anything above that requires a hard fork to increase MAX_BLOCK_SIZE at least. Also storing market offers would lead to immense bloat and a lot of them would be pruned away after some time anyways as markets shift. If you charge (significant) fees for them, they will not really take on as the fees would be much higher than any centralized service.

I already mentioned colored coins and Hops is something I haven't heard about - could you link the current client for it, or is it just a whitepaper (then it falls into the "forum ramblings" category).

From the ToS:
Not via the mail address in your account, not via the API (WTF, srsly?!), not via Facebook or via smoke signals.

If you don't trust them, why did you deposit money with them in the first place?

In case you missed it, this change was announced a month before on their page and on various other channels (unfortunately for you not via mail, though they do state that their changes will be communicated ONLY via your account page, not via the mail address on your account).
I just looked up ToS changes from Paypal and Facebook that I received and they usually also just give a 1 month grace period, so I don't see anything outrageously different here.

Also in case you haven't noticed: DPR from SilkRoad and a few other high value sellers from there have been arrested. It is likely that they also have some links to Bitstamp, so while there were no new laws, there was certainly a change in the external environment that will make them more paranoid about anything Bitcoin.

Bitstamp itself is from Slovenia and likely only registered a UK Ltd. because it is cheaper there and regulations in the financial sector are even more generous than in Slovenia. Also it might be easier to get an answer from british officials regarding regulations of shady/very new financial constructs, as they are used to see that daily compared to Slovenian regulators.

https://giveaway.ripple.com

Rules:
https://ripple.com/blog/git-in-the-game-2020-xrp-giveaway-for-github-users/

Yes it works - no, I don't care if you think Ripple is a scam, please troll elsewhere.

Maybe you can also consider to send some of these free XRP to people who want to fund their accounts or to faucets. Even better would be to actually use them to develop awesome things. If you really do NOT want them at all, just enter a Bitcoin address in the Ripple client and send to that address, Ripple will then automatically trade the XRP for Bitcoin and they will be sent by Bitstamp to your address on the block chain.

If you intend to use Ripple ever again, please make sure to back up your secret key (= private key in Bitcoin) from your wallet to a secure location, there is NO WAY to recover your funds without it, just like loosing your Bitcoin wallet with your private keys inside.

Highlighting by me, see https://en.bitstamp.net/article/bitstamp-new-verification-requirements/ as well as the notification in your account.

If you fail to look into your account for weeks and then don't want to supply KYC info, just ask the "Gigamining" people how much it helps to complain.