Isn't MtGox's official story was that the DDOS attacks are being perpetrated by traders trying to game the system by selling, then driving the price down due to the panic created as a result of the attacks, then buying again at an artificially low price before the currency recovers.  Are you guys really suggesting that the world's reserve banks are trying to kill bitcoin?

I recently learned about Ripple and its crypto-currency, XRP.
At first I thought XRP could potentially outclass bitcoin with Ripple's efficient alternative to proof-of-work (Consensus).
But recent reading has lead me to believe that XRP will never become anything more than a mechanism for limiting abusive transactions.
It seems they (Ripple) are marketing themselves as some kind of virtual decentralized Western Union, where the primary currencies being transferred are fiat (or Bitcoin for now).

I guess my question is: Does Ripple present the same opportunity to compete against central banks as Bitcoin does, or is it just trying to be the next PayPal?  Also: Will XRP ever be traded the same way bitcoin is?

I'm hoping it goes down more in the next week so I can buy some more.
Wish I hadn't sold my last coin for $100 the other day.

I'm Sp4cem0nkey, and I'm excited about the possibilities for Bitcoin and Ripple.
I still have a lot of reading to do...