I knew I would rattle some cages. I like how nobody could reply with an answer for how this is supposed to be BETTER than the current way foreign currency is exchanged. Still waiting for an explanation that will drive value for the general public, otherwise this is just a second rate exchange using Crypto coin # 345 or so, and there's 100 billion of em'.
You do not seem to understand. Ripple allows you to exchange currencies directly with other users, without fees. You do CNY -> USD, NOT cny -> xrp -> usd.
Ripple is a clearance system, an IOU system, that supports multiple currencies, and which has build in markets/exchanges. XRP is a utility of that network, not a currency which you must proxy through.