Ripple - a serious threat?

[AmagnonX]

Hi,

This is my first post - although I'm not a techie, I have a solid understanding of BTC and I've got a decent BTC investment.

I am interested in the competition that will come from Ripple, and hoping to get some feedback specifically regarding its security; namely - is it secure?  It seems to me that Ripple will pose a serious threat to BTC - could we get some feedback from the techie people addressing the differences, and possible weaknesses of Ripple?

The main thing that I despise about Ripple is that the creators have hoarded all the currency, and are releasing a limited supply which has driven its value far above what its actual value would be if traded openly - they intend to cash in on this, and also want to include the central banksters which makes me really annoyed.

Regardless, if Ripple is secure and works as a distributed FOREX, plus credit card system - then it will be very popular.  So I'm interested in technical, or other arguments regarding its impact on the crypto market.

[CIYAM]

The XRP has collapsed in value from a high of around 8,000 per BTC to now around 80,000 per BTC so that aspect has clearly failed (and deservedly so).

Unfortunately it also seems that WeExchange is in big troubles (take a look at the various topics about Ukyo to follow this).

Its worse problem is that it isn't decentralised (very much limited to a small number of servers) although its best feature is very fast txs (assuming that there is no flaw in the "consensus" model it is using).

I think that the "tricky" nature of its launch has led to its unpopularity, however, I do think that the consensus mechanism is an important technical achievement and could be exactly what is needed to help something like Bitcoin that is struggling to cope with large numbers of transactions (and to have transactions "confirm" much quicker).

[OnkelPaul]

XRP has collapsed only if you look at its BTC exchange rate. If you look at the exchange rate to more stable currencies, it has remained at pretty much the same level for a long time, becaused Ripple Labs can essentially keep it from rising above their set target of about 1 XRP = 1$-Cent (by just dropping more of their huge supply into the market).
A high exchange rate for XRP is not in Ripple Labs' interest - they want their system to have more or less stable costs for their users. This means that XRP should have a constant value in fiat terms, because that's what most people are used to.

Onkel Paul

[mydream2059]

Ripple Coin is up to 0.21CNY today IN CHINA. 3 days age, it is worth 0.05CNY

[WayTooGosu]

 I think it may cause damage to Bitcoins eventually, but it will take a long time. Bitcoin is currently the most popular and biggest crypto currency, it will take a long time before Ripple can reach its fame or even hhave their value increase to a value near BTC.

[galbros]

In a word, no.

Ripple is both a payment system and a currency to go along with it.  The payment system is basically for people who want to really be banks as it essentially allows you to issue personal script, denominated in most anything (including bitcoin), backed by, well, you.

I was stunned at the surge in the value of the ripple coins XRP as you only need a few of them to open an account and last you many many transactions.

So no, I don't see it being a threat to bitcoin at all, especially since you can use the ripple payment network to expand the distribution of bitcoins.

[hoewer4what]

No thread at all, I tried it but never figured out how it can be usefull. Add the fact Ripple servers migh be shut down anytime, and you have worthless XRP