Will ripple.com succeed?

[nobbynobbynoob]

A successful Ripple might well complement and not compromise Bitcoin anyway. Right?

[1714801079]

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[DougTanner]

Where is it currently used?

[Mike Christ]

Pretty much nowhere, I think...  It's brand spankin new

[pmarches]

Bitcoin will become a settlement network, where as ripple will become a clearing mechanism. Both are complements of each other. But since ripple deals with fiat, I am afraid governments will attempt to control ripple before they attempt control on bitcoin.

[bitcoinscott]

I'm still not clear on how they accomplish securing the ledger without mining...

[potato5491]

I starting reading up on bitcoin at the start of this year and now can't stop myself from coming back to it. Think I have just about got my head around it, and then this ripple thing comes along to make my brain ache even more!

The thing that is bugging me about ripple is: What is there to stop me setting up my own gateway, operating honestly for a few months/years building up trust and then doing a runner one day, leaving a wake of creditors behind me?

I am well aware that I am probably missing a fundamental concept of ripple gateways here. I just don't know what it is yet 

[Prattler]

The thing that is bugging me about ripple is: What is there to stop me setting up my own gateway, operating honestly for a few months/years building up trust and then doing a runner one day, leaving a wake of creditors behind me?

Ideally, the community, the law, etc. You might also make more money by operating honestly.

In practice, this is *EXACTLY* what will be happening.

P.S. 10¹¹ XRP are currently valued at $39,000,000.

[Prattler]

Following that thought... A gateway can go bankrupt for just operating a bad business and there is nothing to prevent that. The only gateway that would always be able to pay back USD is the Fed and the only gateway that would always be able to pay back EUR is the ECB. There is no gateway that would be able to pay back BTC with 100% security.

But we're already trusting the Fed and ECB as gateways in the current financial system, nothing new!

The real benefit of Ripple would be for potato5491 to issue potato-dollars and then we would all trust potato5491 as the gateway for potato-dollars.

[bowen151]

Where are they getting the valuation of a "ripple" from? Is there an official number or link to find out?

[Peter Lambert]

I dont think it will. There will be an initial surge due to the idea of a btc competitor but the fact that the currency is produced initially from Ripple, makes me question the longevity of it.

I don't see Ripple as a competitor to bitcoin. It is more of a facilitator of bitcoin, it fills a separate niche in the economy. The other thing that might help is if you think of XRP more like postage stamps and less like a currency. Each transaction costs something like 0.000001 xrp, If I do about 3 transactions a day it would take me something like 100 years to use up one XRP. They are giving away bunches of 50000 xrp. I might be able to use the system my entire life without ever buying any more xrp, and still have a bunch left over.

Where are they getting the valuation of a "ripple" from? Is there an official number or link to find out?

There is a mechanism in the ripple client where you can exchange various currencies, and you can trade XRP/BTC.

[Trading]

If one forgets the hard complexity of ripple network (trusts, IOUs that work on a exchange, but not one the other, bugs, etc.), forgets the 100 billions XRPs, forgets that they pocket 20 billion, forgets the giving aways that will have to last for months... did I forget anything more?

[ablewasiereisawelba]

I think there is a chance that it will succeed because I'm intrigued by it.

unfortunately, I was intrigued by Betamax too...

[potato5491]

The real benefit of Ripple would be for potato5491 to issue potato-dollars and then we would all trust potato5491 as the gateway for potato-dollars.

Thanks for the response Prattler. As time passes I am guessing there will come to be only a handful of gateways with "superbrands" that dominate the market. Then one of them will go very wrong. Very much like the handful of international banks we have at the moment I suppose.

Right, starting tomorrow I will begin issuing my potato dollars (PDO). There will only be 5491 of them, and they will not be divisible, so be quick! 

[gfuld]

I think Ripple has the potential to fix a lot of the transactional flaws in Bitcoin.  It takes hours to confirm a Bitcoin transaction and the value fluctuates rapidly.  People can use Ripple to exchange BTC in a faster way while still using BTC as a store of value / unit of account.  Others can use Ripple as away to exchange fiat currency quickly and at essentially zero cost which is very valuable indeed.

Bitcoin is a store of value (scarcity / mining) and medium of exchange (transactions) while Ripple focuses on just being good as a medium of exchange using other stores of value. 

Ripple: rhWUBXH5F5VokNGkcgHt6YSMWnbVpQ7C3o

--gfuld

[j05h]

I think the guys buying thousands of ripples for .6 bit coins are the creators of ripple.  They've given themselves a ton of them.  And are now trading ripples for bitcoins to try to create a market for ripples to make it seem like they have a value.

[alig23]

Who are you?? Brand new since 2011 and now 6 post in one hour... about Ripple  

Simmer down.

[jokerdragon]

ripple ripple ripple ripple

[teejay11]

I think XRP rate will rise, but then rate will fall slowly to 0.00

[JoelKatz]

I'm still not clear on how they accomplish securing the ledger without mining...

Consensus. See this StackExchange answer: http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/a/7563/85