Ripple-like systems a threat to Bitcoin?

[Argwai96]

i love bitcoin. ripple could potentially be really useful, though. i haven't quite figured it all out, but potentially, ripple could easily replace bitcoin's usefulness as a payment system. payments could be cheaper and instant, denominated in virtually any currency, if there is liquidity. we'll see where it goes from here...

[pinnpe]

@bitcoinBull

You can run a local copy of the web client. You can download the ripple-client from github to do this.
Thanks for clearing this up I didn't know, it and the ripple server being opensourced, also answers my next
question about being in control.

Thanks again

[glub0x]

The same transparency we have at the core of the bitcoin network (where we see all the bitcoins on the blockchain), Ripple brings to the surrounding exchange ecosystem (where we can see all the IOUs on the ripple ledger). So it is now public knowledge on the ripple ledger that Bitstamp has issued $259,210 in USD IOUs and 2,321 BTC IOUs (bitstamp's current gateway capitalization). But can you say how much USD and BTC is owed by mtgox? Or any other bitcoin exchange?

I too find it hard to understand the iou system, so what happen if bitstamp disapear ? Do i lost the iou they owe me?

[steelhouse]

Ripple is a scam.  What if ripple.com stole your password and took all your xrps out of your account.  Why can't everybody be a node?  xrps are centralized, even worse if they took your xrps you would have no proof they took them.  i do like the idea of a ledger, but that can occur on the bitcoin decentralized network, the ledger can be updated at a checkpoint and the old  blockchain deleted.

[Alpaca Bob]

Since Ripple is open source now, wouldn't it be possible to create a Ripple-like system with BTC instead of XRP?

[Thør]

Since Ripple is open source now, wouldn't it be possible to create a Ripple-like system with BTC instead of XRP?

Yes, but we didn't need Ripple's code to do that ^

Ripple, like communism, is a fine idea in theory... but history has shown us that it's very tough to keep people honest when money(power) is involved.

However, a truly free & instant, BTC based, open source payment system will be available soon 

R.I.P. Ripple.