Ripple者,涟漪也,顾名思义,它的流动形式应该是像水波一样互相影响,以社会网络中好友的信用作为背书- 我收不到帐就叫我的朋友向欠债者的朋友去收(他们没法帮我收就是欠我一份人情?)
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=128413.0@OP: Ripple's instant confirmations are easy with a "central" server. Ripple is not a competitor of Bitcoin at all but a very very precious addition. Via Ripple you can exchange all currencies, gold, work-hours, bitcoin, etc. by building a web of trust with credit lines between nodes.
If now somebody wants to buy some bitcoins, I could send them to him instantly, stating in ripple that he owes them to me. Much closer peers in the network (aka my friends) now owe me back these bitcoins and I know they will give them to me some day because they again have friends that now owe them bitcoins all the way to the person that now has my bitcoins. If my friends give me some CLP, USD and a beer, I mark the debt as settled at my end.
As my credit lines are not unlimited, we still need to settle debts outside of ripple. Bitcoins will be one way to settle debts.
This getting big would be the greatest thing that could happen to get decentralized exchanges flying!!11
Edit: Ripple has many tricky aspects to tackle and I'm eager to see how they intend to solve them. Critical mass, exchange rates, fees, …
On the other hand it exists since a long time as a concept and I'm sure many smart people discussed it. I'm confident that if they are hiring people, they know what they are doing and wish them all luck.