I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam."

[QuestionAuthority]

So essentially this thread is just a bunch of drama crap because TradeFortress in a thread openly asked people to change their posts almost a month before this thread started? Nice.

There is a reason it's in "Off-topic". The interesting thing is how much money is willing to be wasted to slander Ripple. That screams to me "agenda" and I've always been fascinated with uncovering the hidden agendas. I can just imagine finding out that Ripple's new secret competitor is TradeFortress or something. At least then it'd make sense.

Yeah but doesn't everyone invested in btc have a reason to see ripple fail? Maybe TradeFortress just has more btc than the rest of us. Considering the amount he paid to bash it I'd say that's a safe bet.

Ripple was originally designed to act as a decentralized and open source (yes, yes, I know, it's neither at the moment) exchange. In that, bitcoin *needs* Ripple in order to ween itself off of MtGox and other centralized exchanges. Bitcoiners should be embracing Ripple's concepts, but questioning and wary of OpenCoin's decisions. There is nothing wrong with Ripple, blindly calling it a 'scam' is ignorant imo. You can always call OpenCoin "dishonest" though.

People with money support the status quo against all. This little baby economy is no different than its big brothers. Businesses and individuals fat with cash don't want tax laws to change to favor the poor because they are not poor. It doesn't matter if its a good change or even if it has the potential to make them more money. All they see is that change is change and I'm doin good right now so don't fuck with the recipe. This is the reason larger economies don't work. The only odd thing is that people around here expect the Bitcoin economy will be different. No, it won't be different because humans are still involved.

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[crumbcake]

So essentially this thread is just a bunch of drama crap because TradeFortress in a thread openly asked people to change their posts almost a month before this thread started? Nice.

There is a reason it's in "Off-topic". The interesting thing is how much money is willing to be wasted to slander Ripple. That screams to me "agenda" and I've always been fascinated with uncovering the hidden agendas. I can just imagine finding out that Ripple's new secret competitor is TradeFortress or something. At least then it'd make sense.

Yeah but doesn't everyone invested in btc have a reason to see ripple fail? Maybe TradeFortress just has more btc than the rest of us. Considering the amount he paid to bash it I'd say that's a safe bet.

Ripple was originally designed to act as a decentralized and open source (yes, yes, I know, it's neither at the moment) exchange. In that, bitcoin *needs* Ripple in order to ween itself off of MtGox and other centralized exchanges. Bitcoiners should be embracing Ripple's concepts, but questioning and wary of OpenCoin's decisions. There is nothing wrong with Ripple, blindly calling it a 'scam' is ignorant imo. You can always call OpenCoin "dishonest" though.

Regardless of what Ripple was originally designed to be, the Ripple we're dealing with now is a product of OpenCoin inc. -- a private, for-profit corporation.  Like all private, for-profit companies, OpenCoin inc. has to make a profit.  By definition.  You with me thus far?

If it fails to make a profit, no more OpenCoin inc., and no more "open source sometime in the future" codebase. 
"Bitcoin needs Ripple" is just a less-defeatist rephrasing of "Bitcoin design is flawed, and needs another layer of non-p2p protocol/token system to succeed.  The best choice happens to be a demonstrably flawed product of a for-profit startup called OpenCoin inc."

But all of that's irrelevant.  This thread is not about the worth & validity of Ripple -- it's about you dredging up old threads, spinning them into sinister plots, and passing yourself off as the intrepid truth-seeker in the process. 
Bonus:  Drag TF through the mud, call people not buying your watered-down koolaid "white knights" and "trolls."

[Matthew N. Wright]

it won't be different because humans are still involved.

I've always worried about this in regards to bitcoin, because no manner of coding can change human nature.

[ab8989]

The interesting thing is how much money is willing to be wasted to slander Ripple. That screams to me "agenda" and I've always been fascinated with uncovering the hidden agendas. I can just imagine finding out that Ripple's new secret competitor is TradeFortress or something. At least then it'd make sense.

Everybody could always be guessed to have hidden agendas for everything and starting discussing them based on just a hunch almost never leads to anywhere sensible if the people behind them are not willing to be open about them.

I am also not sure it is you who should start throwing rocks. I vaguely remember you attacked some hw-wallet smartcard business very ruthlessly and unfairly telling people unaccurate information that you have information that an competing product which is massively superior is coming to market in a matter of weeks and later it was found out that it was you that was developing the competing wrist wearable hw wallet not even at a prototype stage yet which you were talking about without disclosing your agenda. You also took strong positions related to zhoutong in the bitcoinica fiascos and it was later found out that you had many ongoing business dealings together with him. You have been involved in more than a dozen bitcoin businesses and I am pretty sure there were many other instances where you were not disclosing your agenda when publicly taking strong positions on subjects around them. Based on your extensive involvement in what felt at the moment like half of all bitcoin businesses there were many people that honestly believed you were probably best pals with pirate when you started the 'bet'. That was probably not true in the end but honestly, who can be sure about it because many people thought and still think: "The interesting thing is how much money was willing to be wasted to defend pirate and to convince people that pirate is going to pay his debts. That screams to me agenda". We just haven't found out exactly what was he truth about that particular agenda.

I am also not sure you have not recently developed a strong business interest with OpenCoin. However starting to discuss that is unlikely to be fruitful, so I am not starting that discussion.

[Matthew N. Wright]

Everybody could always be guessed to have hidden agendas for everything and starting discussing them based on just a hunch almost never leads to anywhere sensible if the people behind them are not willing to be open about them.

If TradeFortress or anyone else with a hardon for slandering Ripple were honest, this entire thread may never have existed in the first place, GoWest may have never felt it necessary to call out someone bribing people to slander on their behalf, and TradeFortress may not have been guilty of lying by omission. Unfortunately, all of these things happened so here we are. Since nothing besides attempts to derail have been posted by anyone, I'll lock the thread for now.