If the distribution of XRP and the conduct of OpenCoin is a problem, at least the world will have their technology.
No they won't the transaction server is closed source and only runs on OpenCoin owned hardware.
Incorrect. Ripple runs on ~100 servers now.
Provide a link to the download.
Well, the code is here:
https://github.com/ripple/rippled - you can't access it though if you don't have the necessary credentials (that do NOT include being an OpenCoin employee...).
I know for a fact that rippled does NOT run only on OpenCoin owned hardware. I could easily prove that by for example posting a recent commit hash or a hash of a binary created from source. I definitely wouldn't recommend anyone though to "leak" the source code though, as it still needs polishing and some refactoring (although it seems to continue on a steady pace).
If the distribution of XRP and the conduct of OpenCoin is a problem, at least the world will have their technology.
No they won't the transaction server is closed source and only runs on OpenCoin owned hardware.
Both statements are false.
Yet you admit in the next post that the transaction server IS closed source and only available to approved lackeys of OpenCoin. Replaced "owned" with "approved". Nobody runs the closed source binaries with OpenCoins experess permission. Permission which can be revoked at any point in the future for any reason.
Closed source and absolute central control of the network. Ripple is PayPal 2.0.
How many people external to PayPal have full access to PayPal's server code?
Rippled sources are not THAT hard to come by, have you actually asked for early access with a good reason? Also I am not aware of any NDAs etc. that are being signed when gaining access to rippled sources, maybe someone else can help you there...
Permission which can be revoked at any point in the future for any reason.
By the way, how do you plan to revoke sources from 100 of groups which have them now?
Simple. Release a new version which drops connections from servers older than prior version. Revoke access to the proprietary closed source binary to those you no longer want to run the server.
Guess what, people would release the code for the latest version they had access to then.
OpenCoin provides source code, no pre-compiled binaries. Build instructions are here:
https://ripple.com/wiki/Rippled_build_instructionsHundred different groups have rippled sources. What is a problem with bugfixes, improvements and enhancements?
No they don't. The ripple server (rippled) is released as binary only. Nobody has a copy of the source code except OpenCoin, Inc. Even if someone did it would be no different than stealing source code from Microsoft. It continues to remain the property of the owner and that owner could seek legal action against those who fraudulently use, modify, or distribute it. If OpenCoin went bankrupt before releasing the source code under an open source license the assets of OpenCoin could be bought by another company say PayPal for the sole purpose of killing the project.
This is simply wrong, rippled is released as source code only. Dozens, if not hundreds of people external to OpenCoin have access to this source code, in various legislations. Good luck in hunting them down or even finding out who uploaded an archive of a .git folder on a filedump website.
I agree that it would still be risky to develop this code any further, but at least it would still run and could be used for re-implementations.
The other thing people miss: XRP = Market Making Currency...
If the network is ever scaled up...
The most favorable exchange price will always flow through XRP...
Trading XRP has huge risks involved (even more than trading BTC and these can be already quite volatile), I doubt that there will be big liquidity providers using XRP trades in the longer run. This is paired with an entity that is known to be willing to sell its stash (unlike Satoshi who is controlling a large part of all available BTC but has disappeared). If you want to play the big investor and market maker, you should definitely stay within BTC territory and not mess with XRP.
Sukrim, I alwais appreciate your posts but here I have to strongly disagree: XRPs are the fuel of the ripple network. Every gateway must have a strong market between his IOUs and XRP if it wants his IOUs to be liquid and exploit the potential of the federate protocol (managing a single market a gateway can link its currency to every other currency in the ripple network, instead of dealing one by one with thousands of gateways and different tokens)
This difference in usage between XRP and BTC should be pointed out. Bitcoin has an ideological push as "currency for the people" (regardless of the fact that we believe in it or not) that XRP hasn't, because it's not designed for that purpose.
Shouldn't be so hard to think at
XRP as a "business" currency, useful for entrepreneurs, market makers and investors (the reckless ones
) while the
Ripple Network is for the people, even and especially bitcoiners.
And this perspective, in my point of view, could solve many of the misunderstandings we see here at bitcointalk.
I'm still working on my market analysis code but I'm not too sure if even now IOUs have to have the strongest paths + liquidity towards XRP. I would suspect liquidity towards USD.Bitstamp and BTC.Bitstamp is at least as important as towards XRP at the moment, if not the most important factor for an IOU. Gateways don't have to (after some initial difficulties maybe) deal with other gateways at all, as liquidity problems can be detected and filled easily by bots for example. I agree with the "XRP is more for the risk loving people who like to trade and code bots while IOUs are useful for the 'users'" though.
Where can I trade this stuff for PPC, LTC or BTC?
DividendRippler offers easily redeemable BTC, NMC, TRC (whatever they are?) and LTC IOUs, their website makes it quite easy to automate things. After you set up your redemption addresses there, all you need to do is to send money to their address and specify which currency should be paid out and which of your IOUs or XRP should be used as input.
PPC seem to be rare enough that nobody set up a gateway (yet), so your best shot might be getting BTC (or something else with high liquidity towards PPC) and trading these.
