Google funding Ripple

[Rygon]

They plan to distribute 50%. If the market would accept them holding 50% I don't know. Satoshi holds nearly 10% currently, so I guess it will come down to personal preference.

Either way. Within the Ripple ecosystem, Ripples are inherently superior to Bitcoins BY DESIGN. That's my point.

I'm not sure how it could be designed so that Ripples weren't superior to bitcoin unless we had a methodology for moving coins across chains, which would be doable, but would require fundamental protocol changes for every coin that wanted to be supported.

Why are ripples superior to bitcoins? Like bitcoins, ripples have no underlying value. Unlike bitcoins, nobody is claiming that ripples have value.

Put two and two together... As value is determined by markets anyways, it simply makes sense that the market will reject that ripples have any value.

Nobody is saying that XRP has any value? So all the people buying XRP for BTC and all those XRP charts are just jokes? Opencoin will do everything they can for XRP to rise in value. That is their business plan. But i also think that it has very big flaws. I read somewhere that you pay with XRP when doing transactions on the Ripple network and that those XRP get destroyed. That means that for every year there will be less of them. If Opencoin holds 50%, how much will they hold after a few years?

The volume of XRP traded is ridiculously low compared to the amount of XRP in circulation. The 30 day volume is like 100 Million XRP out of 50 Billion. BTC on the other hand is around 4 Million out of 11 Million. XRP is much riskier because OpenCoin or whoever owns Billions of XRP could easily dump a portion of that coin and flood the market. In fact, that will continue to be the case as long as coins are so concentrated in one place.

[Brushan]

I understand your argument but you forget that it's their business plan to make the value rise. They won't be making large dumps and devalue their own company.

[johnyj]

Ripple can be shut down anytime when opencoin is shut down by the government, and the government is already in action...

[solidshotnosh]

I activated my wallet


Now how the fug do I start confirming transactions/mine ?

[MAbtc]

Bitcoins only have value because people believe it has value.

[...]

Ripples are not intended to store value. They are intended to facilitate transfer of things with actual value. Therefore, the market will not assign much value to ripples.

First point -- exactly. That's what I was saying about subjective value. Same applies to Ripple -- indeed, you can see from the market that people assign them value. Second point -- disagree. People subjectively value Ripple, therefore it has value. The "intention" makes no difference.

If it had no value, it could not facilitate transfer of things of value. Who would trade Bitcoin for Ripple if Ripple has no value?

[notme]

They plan to distribute 50%. If the market would accept them holding 50% I don't know. Satoshi holds nearly 10% currently, so I guess it will come down to personal preference.

Either way. Within the Ripple ecosystem, Ripples are inherently superior to Bitcoins BY DESIGN. That's my point.

I'm not sure how it could be designed so that Ripples weren't superior to bitcoin unless we had a methodology for moving coins across chains, which would be doable, but would require fundamental protocol changes for every coin that wanted to be supported.

Why are ripples superior to bitcoins? Like bitcoins, ripples have no underlying value. Unlike bitcoins, nobody is claiming that ripples have value.

Put two and two together... As value is determined by markets anyways, it simply makes sense that the market will reject that ripples have any value.

Ripples are superior to bitcoins INSIDE the Ripple ecosystem.

A bitcoin in the Ripple ecosystem is just a promise of a bitcoin.

Exactly.  I was speaking from the context of the Ripple blockchain.  From the context of the Bitcoin blockchain, not only are btc superior, XRP don't even exist.

[Peter Lambert]

Ripple focuses on credit, bitcoin focuses of assets, they are not really competing. What is good for Ripple is good for Bitcoin because Ripple is complimentary to Bitcoin.

Are you a Ripple/OpenCoin shill or did you just swallow their deception? I have noticed that this is their tactic for silently getting Bitcoiners to switch and then growing like a parasite side by side with its host to suck it dry. They downplay the role of XRP (Ripples) as mere "tokens" and "not a currency" while it is the only asset in the Ripple system that is not subject to counterparty risk. Furthermore, OpenCoin holds 50% of Ripples hoping to make a profit off them (this is what they stated in public), partly to fund development. I presume the same goes for the VC investors in Ripple.

Any Ripple adoption will threaten Bitcoin because the Ripple currency is the only one without counterparty risk within the Ripple system. All other currencies have to be held with gateways. Furthermore, Ripples are required for opening accounts and performing transactions. In the longer term, there is absolutely no reason to prefer Bitcoins to Ripples if used within Ripple.

Ripples are not credit. They are an asset in its own right, with no counterparty risk and no inflation.

I am not a Ripple shill, I just think there is potential for Ripple and Bitcoin to be useful together.

Ripples are not credit. They are an asset, but I do not really know how to evaluate their worth. So I am not investing in XRPs, I got a bunch free in the giveaway. That should be enough for me to use Ripple the rest of my life, and I am holding onto thousands of them just because I think sometime in the future I will want to give them away to my friends to get them started in Ripple, I do not plan to ever buy XRP.

I would prefer to be paid in BTC, even on Ripple, over being paid in XRP, just like I would rather be paid in dollars than postage stamps. Holding BTC on Ripple, while not having all the same benefits of holding the BTC oneself, does retain some of the strengths of Bitcoins.

[Stunna]

200k Is nothing to Google, I doubt they think much of it, this could eventually be bad news for BTC if google buys them out though.

[afbitcoins]

Ripples are a trojan horse in the crypto currency realm !!!

Money like gold, silver and bitcoins are assets with no liability. This is money that sets you free.

Fiat currency and ripple represent debt. The purpose is to keep you as a debt slave. The aim of ripple is to take over and replace bitcoins with promises to bitcoins, all the while pretending it is good for bitcoins. It allows the ripple controllers to  inflate the bitcoin economy (and in fact any economy). Inflation is theft, pure and simple.

Ripples is a scam. Check the link in my sig.

[Zaih]

It's so obvious that Ripple's flawed in so many unfair ways.. I don't get why they're investing int hem -_-

[ronaldlee0917]

It may not be necessarily a bad news, at the very least Ripple will kick Mt Gox out of business, this alone should be the greatest news to Bitcoin in a decade.

not even funny to joke about that

bitcoin is hugely dependent upon MtGox right now.

I am not joking.
Putting the future of Bitcoin in the hands of a centralized exchange with an unprofessional team will do more harm than good to Bitcoin in the long run.

[cdog]

OpenCoin's business model consists of holding 50% Ripples and hoping they appreciate in value.

Just dont get caught holding the XRP bag people: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bagholder

Sad Google is investing in Opencoin, really sad actually. It gives it some legitimacy, but the reality is that Google cant ever control BTC so they cant invest in it. They want stakes in things that they can CONTROL.

Bitcoin has value because no one person, government, or corporation, like Opencoin, controls its. This is where it derives most of its value.

[afbitcoins]

It may not be necessarily a bad news, at the very least Ripple will kick Mt Gox out of business, this alone should be the greatest news to Bitcoin in a decade.

not even funny to joke about that

bitcoin is hugely dependent upon MtGox right now.

I am not joking.
Putting the future of Bitcoin in the hands of a centralized exchange with an unprofessional team will do more harm than good to Bitcoin in the long run.

Ripple will be centralised too and potentially do a lot more harm than one large exchange ever can. MtGox is just one of many exchanges I've never used.

[afbitcoins]

Have you heard how the Federal Reserve is not Federal and has no reserves ... (that is true)

It seems to me thats a bit like how Opencoin is not open source !

Trying to mislead people with the name. Dirty tricks being played on us.

 

[Zangelbert Bingledack]

XRP "stamps" (lol!) are such a devious ploy. I cannot trust an organization that would pull such a slimy trick.

[Zangelbert Bingledack]

Erik Voorhees made an excellent post on OC Ripple here. That and his followups are very interesting. I basically agree entirely with his position. Not a scam, not too greedy, but too greedy to succeed long-term. Just a glorified pre-mined altcoin.

[Kazu]

I don't see how ripples can be considered a bad thing. If people start moving USD -> Ripples, thats just 1 step closer to Bitcoin. USD -> Bitcoin is a huge pain. Anything that, even unintentionally, can make buying bitcoins easier will be a huge boon.

[cryptoanarchist]

I lost interest in Ripple as soon as a I read they were "giving away" their currency.

[afbitcoins]

Erik Voorhees made an excellent post on OC Ripple here. That and his followups are very interesting. I basically agree entirely with his position. Not a scam, not too greedy, but too greedy to succeed long-term. Just a glorified pre-mined altcoin.

Good link, interesting reading

Better get back to work now though lol

[Kazu]

Could somebody quickly explain to me why it is bad that XRP are marketed as "stamps" or "credit." They aren't marketed as "money", that doesn't mean that they want them to be money... that might mean they just want them to be "stamps" or "credit."