Ripple is excellent, but short-sighted.

[lixiaolai]

Ripple seems providing feasible solutions that bitcoin probably has, and sounds pretty promising.

However, when it comes to reserve half of XRP for themselves, Ripple show its myopia. So little a size of economy they are looking forward to, that they're trying to grap HALF of it!

Sigh, a tiny mind can never have a tremendous achievement.

If I started OpenCoin, I'd reserve nothing, and if I were determined to raise its value, the simplest choice would be buying XRP myself from the very beginning.

[realdos]

This problem exists because the only way for OpenCoin to make profit is to sell the xrp when its value is rising. They thus have to keep a certain proportion of xrp in reserve, also aiming to manipulate the price of xrp...

[🏰 TradeFortress 🏰]

This problem exists because the only way for OpenCoin to make profit is to sell the xrp when its value is rising. They thus have to keep a certain proportion of xrp in reserve, also aiming to manipulate the price of xrp...

Because Bitcoin was made by someone who was in it for the profit, right?

Because Linux was made by someone who was in it for the profit, right?

Ripple is a dirty cash grab.

[Mike Christ]

Ripple - Ripplescamcoin = Better Ripple

Just release the source code already, I don't want to use XRP.

[franky1]

yet again more useless threads showing a lack of understandin of what ripple is all about.

best analogy i have found to describe it
ripple is like the postal service sending transactions (cheques/checks) in the mail to each other where everyone knows a cheque is not the actual money, but just a IOU/request for bank(exchange) to authorise payment you person named on the cheque on behalf of person B and XRP is simply the postage stamped envelope used to send the transaction.

yet everyone just see's XRP as an alt coin. avoiding the actual purpose of ripple

EG

convert bitcoin for FIAT where it costs a smal decimal of a single XRP. meaning that if you have 500xrp you can do many many transactions before needing to buy more XRP(stamps).

only the mega exchanges need hoards of XRP to do many dolar to euro, euro to yen, dollar to bitcoin, transactions..  the whole btc to xrp transactions should only be needed as often as someone goes to a post office to buy 500 stamps.. so please please realise the true purpose of ripple and stop complaining about XRP as if was always intended to be an alt.

once people start using ripple for its intended purpose XRP will be worth pennies. but i fear ripple as s payment utility will be ignored and XRP will continue to be traded as purely a altcoin against other coins directly..

which leaves me to face palm alot of community members that still don't even read the descriptions of programs and use them for their desired functions.

[nameface]

This is a troll thread. OP doesn't know what he's talking about.

[colour]

ripple is like the postal service sending transactions (cheques/checks) in the mail to each other where everyone knows a cheque is not the actual money, but just a IOU/request for bank(exchange) to authorise payment you person named on the cheque on behalf of person B and XRP is simply the postage stamped envelope used to send the transaction.

yet everyone just see's XRP as an alt coin. avoiding the actual purpose of ripple

I see this repeated by the supporters of Opencoin's Ripple again and again, but I do not see how this is true. From the wiki:

The ripple founders created the initial ripple ledger with 100 billion XRP. The founders gifted a for profit company called Opencoin 80 billion XRP. Opencoin intends to give away over 50 billion XRP. The remainder will be used to fund Opencoin operations, which include contributing code to the open source network and promoting the network.

How can they claim XRP are worthless stamps on the one hand, but then on the other hand they are somehow valuable enough to fund their business? The Opencoin guys MUST be realizing that their XRP do have value (something like 2 cent per XRP at the moment) and that they are traded and used like a currency right now. How can they just ignore that and claim XRP are basically worthless and not a currency? On Reddit it was even mentioned that a VPN service is already accepting XRP as payment. I don't know about the US, but in my country stamps are used like a currency. If you buy things from the post office, they give you your change in stamps. You also get change back in stamps when sending cash to certain mailorder services (less weight than metal coins).

The drastic increase in XRP value during the last weeks is in my opinion a direct result of Opencoin's position as the equivalent of a "XRP central bank". They have nearly complete control over the supply. With demand being as high as it is at the moment, their restriction of the supply makes the price of XRP shoot up. The price of XRP is basically completely in Opencoin's hands and completely dependent on Opencoin's goodwill, they can make it go in whatever direction pleases them. Why should a for-profit company not abuse such a position? I am extremely distrustful of their intentions, and would urge anyone who intends to use their system (which makes using XRP mandatory) to be very cautious.

[MPOE-PR]

Ripple - Ripplescamcoin = Better Ripple

Just release the source code already, I don't want to use XRP.

Pretty much.

Even if it's debatable if the Better Ripple end is above or below epsilon, it's still undebatable that Ripple - Ripplescamcoin = Better Ripple.

Noticing the elaborate sidestepping employed by people obviously attached to the Ripplescamcoin part and paid for it (such as) I'd guess there's absolutely no chance of this happening: never will Ripplescamcoin give up (until the venture capital runs out at least); nobody will reimplement Ripple w/o the scam because Better Ripple actually is below epsilon and thus not worth it.

Life in a free world: scamming and lying no longer reserved exclusively for the government; open to the public instead. Learn to love it I guess.

The Opencoin guys MUST be realizing that their XRP do have value (something like 2 cent per XRP at the moment) and that they are traded and used like a currency right now.

It's not at all that they don't realize. They do realize, as they took the deliberate step to waste some Bitcoin (bought for PayPal's venture dollars) in order to artificially increase the XRP exchange rate to a point where they can claim "looky, Ripple mkt cap > Bitcoin mkt cap". They figured this would somehow bring in more love, not more scrutiny.

To get a sample of that shitfest:

Taking into consideration the total number of Ripples (XRP), that is, 100 billion, and the current exchange rate of approximately 70 XRP/USD, the XRP market cap is $1.43 billion USD. Bitcoin's market cap is currently $1.30 billion USD.

Sources tell me that, in the same vein as what has been happening with Bitcoin, Chinese investors have shown great interest in Ripple, and are responsible for a non-trivial fraction of the recent rise in XRP valuation.

Remember that Ripple's key investors have connections to PayPal and Dwolla, and will want to bring them on as Ripple Gateways. Such a move would boost Ripple's valuation well into the stratosphere, leaving Bitcoin behind as a beta-version afterthought.

(from obscure blogs nobody cares about nominally)

So then: whatever business strategists Ripple hired gave them the uniquely bad advice of trying to push up the price, oblivious to the fact that such an attempt will indisputably cement XRP's position among the known pump scams like Novacoin, rather than among the humble Bitcoin just-in-case substitutes like LTC. Bad move.

(An aside for Venture Idiots: submit already! Pay the fees of the actually competent. This thing where you're hiring the retarded but accessible is only going to continue the trend where you're being publicly humiliated. You're not "saving money", and you sure as hell can't even begin to "shape the field".)

[franky1]

the same way the postal service can say that stamps are not a currency yet that is their method  of getting paid, by people buying stamps. then look at the profit and loss sheets of the postal services of your native country. and you will start coming to the arguments MPOE-PR is coming up with

the point is instead of using ripple as its intended use, a peer to peer exchange for bitcoins to fiat between people and exchanges like bitstamp...much like sending a cheque through a postal service, everyone is using it just to buy and sell the stamps between each other(xrp). as if the stamp/xrp is more important then the service ripple/postal service offer.

yea a postal stamp is worth a few pennys when you go buy them at a postal service. but that is not the whole point of a postal service. a postal service does not exist purely to sell postal stamps,  its just its method of getting paid for the actual service it offers

ripple does not exist purely to sell ripple, its just its method of getting paid for the actual service it offers

ripple is not selling you a product, its a service (peer to peer exchange)... xrp are only important for the transmission of the requests for bitcoin-fiat. the sooner people see that XRP is not an altcoin the better.

[MPOE-PR]

the point is instead of using ripple as its intended use, a peer to peer exchange for bitcoins to fiat between people and exchanges like bitstamp...much like sending a cheque through a postal service, everyone is using it just to buy and sell the stamps between each other(xrp). as if the stamp/xrp is more important then the service ripple/postal service offer.

The funny part here is, of course,

[colour]

the point is instead of using ripple as its intended use, a peer to peer exchange for bitcoins to fiat between people and exchanges like bitstamp...much like sending a cheque through a postal service, everyone is using it just to buy and sell the stamps between each other(xrp). as if the stamp/xrp is more important then the service ripple/postal service offer.

These "stamps" are, in essence, a deflationary cryptocurrency. They are being used as currency, and I see no reason why they will not be continued to be used as currency in the future. I refuse to believe that Opencoin did not see right away that their XRP actually can and will be used as currency. What about the various reports from multiple users (on Reddit and here) who claimed to have spoken with Opencoin employees (e.g. at the conference), who basically admitted that it is their business model to expect XRP to become more popular as a currency, and to eventually take away a significant marketcap from Bitcoin? Maybe these are all TradeFortress sockpuppets in disguise, but IMO this is basically the only logical outcome if Opencoin's Ripple becomes popular - why transfer monetary value with Bitcoin IOUs when XRP serve the same purpose? Again, I refuse to believe that Opencoin did not consider that as a possible scenario, that could potentially bring them (as a for-profit company and as the holders of a majority of all XRP) massive profits.

[misterbigg]

These "stamps" are, in essence, a deflationary cryptocurrency

XRP is a currency:

[colour]

Ok, I just discovered this interview with Chris Larsen (Co-founder and CEO of Opencoin), and he explicitly talks about XRPs as a fixed-amount currency competing with Bitcoins.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=3SBzhXpxBhA#t=362s

I think that should be reason enough to stop saying that XRP are not intended by Opencoin to be used as a currency?!

[Zaih]

Not sure if serious..

[misterbigg]

I think that should be reason enough to stop saying that XRP are not intended by Opencoin to be used as a currency?!

Like I said. XRP is a currency!

[nameface]

XRP is designed to be an intermediary facilitating the flow in and out of other currencies. Calling it a currency or a stamp is over-simplifying.

Q: How is Ripple a Ponzi if: A - XRP are given away, and B - There's a finite supply?
A: It has absolutely nothing in common with a Ponzi.

It's harder and more pointless for vultures to hoard XRP. That's what a lot of the fuss is about imo.
Not enough of us on bitcointalk discuss the impacts of technologies in the real world. What Ripple offers is huge.

[MPOE-PR]

XRP is designed to be an intermediary facilitating the flow in and out of other currencies. Calling it a currency or a stamp is over-simplifying.

Q: How is Ripple a Ponzi if: A - XRP are given away, and B - There's a finite supply?
A: It has absolutely nothing in common with a Ponzi.

You're new here are you?

Carlo Pietro Giovanni Guglielmo Tebaldo Ponzi, (March 3, 1882 – January 18, 1949), commonly known as Charles Ponzi, was an Italian businessman and con artist in the U.S. and Canada. His aliases include Charles Ponci, Carlo and Charles P. Bianchi.[1] Born in Italy, he became known in the early 1920s as a swindler in North America for his money making scheme. Charles Ponzi promised clients a 50% profit within 45 days, or 100% profit within 90 days, by buying discounted postal reply coupons in other countries and redeeming them at face value in the United States as a form of arbitrage.

How is it anything else.

[Matthew N. Wright]

XRP is designed to be an intermediary facilitating the flow in and out of other currencies. Calling it a currency or a stamp is over-simplifying.

Q: How is Ripple a Ponzi if: A - XRP are given away, and B - There's a finite supply?
A: It has absolutely nothing in common with a Ponzi.

You're new here are you?

Carlo Pietro Giovanni Guglielmo Tebaldo Ponzi, (March 3, 1882 – January 18, 1949), commonly known as Charles Ponzi, was an Italian businessman and con artist in the U.S. and Canada. His aliases include Charles Ponci, Carlo and Charles P. Bianchi.[1] Born in Italy, he became known in the early 1920s as a swindler in North America for his money making scheme. Charles Ponzi promised clients a 50% profit within 45 days, or 100% profit within 90 days, by buying discounted postal reply coupons in other countries and redeeming them at face value in the United States as a form of arbitrage.

How is it anything else.

 

[nameface]

Q: How is Ripple a Ponzi if: A - XRP are given away, and B - There's a finite supply?
A: It has absolutely nothing in common with a Ponzi.

You're new here are you?

Ponzi promised clients a 50% profit within 45 days, or 100% profit within 90 days, by buying discounted postal reply coupons in other countries and redeeming them at face value in the United States as a form of arbitrage.

How is it anything else.

You have no argument other than: Ponzi has something to do with stamps, and some people say Ripple is like stamps. Gimme a break, what is this, grade 10?

They are giving the XRP away in order to grow the infrastructure of a distributed currency exchange.

[TimJBenham]

How can they claim XRP are worthless stamps on the one hand,

Where do they do that?