The difference between Ripple and Bitcoin

[cbeast]

Based on the same reasoning (or lack thereof), the amount of Bitcoins in existence is conspicuously not mathematically verifiable either.

I think we're done.

I would add in a Gene Wilder voice (Depp was not as intense): "According to all the published source code as well as the performance data from the last five years, it is clear that the Bitcoin protocol is based upon the claimed mathematically provable limit. You would know this if you had done any research first. Also, you did not return the Everlasting Gobstopper. Good Day, Sir!"

[acoindr]

Based on the same reasoning (or lack thereof), the amount of Bitcoins in existence is conspicuously not mathematically verifiable either.

I think we're done.

I would add in a Gene Wilder voice (Depp was not as intense): "According to all the published source code as well as the performance data from the last five years, it is clear that the Bitcoin protocol is based upon the claimed mathematically provable limit. You would know this if you had done any research first. Also, you did not return the Everlasting Gobstopper. Good Day, Sir!"

[Siegfried]

I have no interest in Ripple because I can already buy almost everything that I need with Bitcoin, and soon I will be able to buy literally everything I need with Bitcoin. That is the vision of Bitcoin that made me a believer - one currency that can be used to buy anything, anywhere, instantly. Middlemen, whether they be traditional banks, fiat-Bitcoin exchanges, or Ripple, have no place in the ideal world of digital currency. Obviously, Bitcoin exchanges are necessary now during this transitional stage, but it seems to me that Bitcoin users have few uses for Ripple now and will have even fewer uses, eventually none, as Bitcoin weaves its tentacles deeper into the global economy and realizes its full potential.

If I may ask how did you get your Bitcoins in first place?
If you mined them and made it a policy not to ever exchange them for fiat or other crypto-currencies, then indeed Ripple is not for you. But keep in mind that you are the exception, and the overwhelming majority of Bitcoiners want to be able to move in and out of Bitcoin and to fiat or other crypto-currencies. To this vast majority, Ripple offers instant balance teleport between exchanges, gives back to users full control over their exchange balances / debt, and enforces cryptographically exchanges accountability and book keeping.

Comparing Bitcoin alone and Ripple makes no sense since Bitcoin is a commodity and Ripple is a distributed exchange and payment network. It's like comparing the Apple stock and the Nasdaq exchange. However comparing Bitcoin + traditional centralized exchanges VS Bitcoin + Ripple is very relevant, and that's where it becomes clear that Ripple is a major step forward for Bitcoin and a solution to the recurrent issue of poor exchanges transparence, accountability and tendency to setup arbitrary capital controls.

I bought from local sellers and from exchanges. I did say that exchanges are necessary now during the transition to a Bitcoin economy. If Ripple can make the exchange system better during this transitional phase, I am all for it. But the direction that most of the people in this community want us to go is toward an economy where Bitcoin the currency can be used on the Bitcoin payment network for all transactions. If Ripple helps us get there, good, but I think we are already on that trajectory regardless of what Ripple does or becomes.

[TheWhale]

It is sad how uneducated a lot of the users on bitcointalk are when it comes to Ripple.

Probably the most promising financial protocol out there apart from Bitcoin.

Instant transfers baby! 

[justusranvier]

I see that nobody in Ripple wants to talk about counterparty risk.

[freequant]

Based on the same reasoning (or lack thereof), the amount of Bitcoins in existence is conspicuously not mathematically verifiable either.

I think we're done.

I would add in a Gene Wilder voice (Depp was not as intense): "According to all the published source code as well as the performance data from the last five years, it is clear that the Bitcoin protocol is based upon the claimed mathematically provable limit. You would know this if you had done any research first. Also, you did not return the Everlasting Gobstopper. Good Day, Sir!"

And so is Ripple, QED.

[freequant]

I see that nobody in Ripple wants to talk about counterparty risk.

Simply because counter party risk is the same as with classic crypto-currency exchanges, so not a difference between Ripple and Bitcoin.

[corebob]

It is sad how uneducated a lot of the users on bitcointalk are when it comes to Ripple.

Probably the most promising financial protocol out there apart from Bitcoin.

Instant transfers baby!  

Instant transfers is easy to achieve using a few heavy duty centralized servers around the world, if that was acceptable there would be no point in decentralized currencies, and government/banks would take control of those and out compete all our coins in a heartbeat.

That said, I'm open to any exciting features Ripple turns out to have, as long as they are decentralized and reward based (as in mining fees)

[~Coinseeker~]

The worlds transactions are based on trust.  There is no way around that, as Bitcoin itself has found out.  What do people think BitPay and Coinbase are?  They are centralized companies based on trust.  The businesses they sign up don't accept BTC....BitPay and Coinbase accept BTC as 3rd party, centralized companies.  (clearing houses)  They in turn pay the businesses in USD.  So businesses are really just accepting the fiat currencies they are used to and Bitcoin is using a central clearing house to achieve this.  The same as Visa does or banks via ACH.  The goal is to move away from that.  (At least for me.)

With Ripple, the consumer and the merchant can cut out the central clearing house.  Consumer sends BTC and the merchant receives USD.  Confirmed and irreversible in seconds.  This is distributed exchange.  Globally this can be any currency.  Consumer sends BTC and merchant in China receives Yen.  Confirmed and irreversible in seconds.  Or, consumer sends frequent flyer miles and a merchant in India receives Indian Rupees or gold even.  Whatever.  Confirmed and irreversible in seconds.  The possibilities are limitless, ridiculously fast and cheap because we are trading peer-to-peer, instead of peer->to central clearing house->to peer.

So again, if you're one that plans to only deal in bitcoin -> bitcoin transactions, Ripple doesn't offer you much.  There is no argument there.  However, with hundreds of digital currencies and hundreds of fiat currencies, a scenario like that is simply unrealistic for the majority of the planets population.  Just as we don't all use AOL for email.  We use countless email platforms but we needed a protocol, SMTP, in order to communicate outside our specific email platform.  

So Ripple (RTXP) will do for money, what SMTP did for email.  SMTP was and is not a competitor of Gmail or Outlook or AOL or any other email platform.  It's just the protocol that allows them all to communicate and exchange information directly.  Just as RTXP (Ripple) is not a competitor to Bitcoin or Litecoin or DogeCoin or any other digital or fiat currency.  It's just a protocol that allows all these things of value to be exchanged directly.

https://ripple.com/ripple_primer.pdf

[NWO]

The worlds transactions are based on trust.  There is no way around that, as Bitcoin itself has found out.  What do people think BitPay and Coinbase are?  They are centralized companies based on trust.  The businesses they sign up don't accept BTC....BitPay and Coinbase accept BTC as 3rd party, centralized companies.  (clearing houses)  They in turn pay the businesses in USD.  So businesses are really just accepting the fiat currencies they are used to and Bitcoin is using a central clearing house to achieve this.  The same as Visa does or banks via ACH.  The goal is to move away from that.  (At least for me.)

With Ripple, the consumer and the merchant can cut out the central clearing house.  Consumer sends BTC and the merchant receives USD.  Confirmed and irreversible in seconds.  This is distributed exchange.  Globally this can be any currency.  Consumer sends BTC and merchant in China receives Yen.  Confirmed and irreversible in seconds.  Or, consumer sends frequent flyer miles and a merchant in India receives INR.  Confirmed and irreversible in seconds.  The possibilities are limitless, ridiculously fast and cheap because we are trading peer-to-peer, instead of peer->to central clearing house->to peer.

So again, if you're one that plans to only deal in bitcoin -> bitcoin transactions, Ripple doesn't offer you much.  There is no argument there.  However, with hundreds of digital currencies and hundreds of fiat currencies, a scenario like that is simply unrealistic for the majority of the planets population.  Just as we don't all use AOL for email.  We use countless email platforms but we needed a protocol, SMTP, in order to communicate outside our specific email platform.  

So Ripple (RTXP) will do for money, what SMTP did for email.  SMTP was and is not a competitor of Gmail or Outlook or AOL or any other email platform.  It's just the protocol that allows them all to communicate and exchange information directly.  Just as RTXP (Ripple) is not a competitor to Bitcoin or Litecoin or DogeCoin or any other digital or fiat currency.  It's just a protocol that allows all these things of value to be exchanged directly.

Spot on +1

[Littleshop]

So Ripple (RTXP) will do for money, what SMTP did for email.  SMTP was and is not a competitor of Gmail or Outlook or AOL or any other email platform.  It's just the protocol that allows them all to communicate and exchange information directly.  Just as RTXP (Ripple) is not a competitor to Bitcoin or Litecoin or DogeCoin or any other digital or fiat currency.  It's just a protocol that allows all these things of value to be exchanged directly.

https://ripple.com/ripple_primer.pdf

No.  Bitcoin is the SMTP for money.  Ripple is a company marketing a new incompatible email system based on closed standards partially opened up just to say so. 

[Sukrim]

No.  Bitcoin is the SMTP for money.

How can I transfer Euros with Bitcoin and withdraw the same amount 2 weeks later? How to bridge from Bitcoin to even something like Litecoin?

[freequant]

So Ripple (RTXP) will do for money, what SMTP did for email.  SMTP was and is not a competitor of Gmail or Outlook or AOL or any other email platform.  It's just the protocol that allows them all to communicate and exchange information directly.  Just as RTXP (Ripple) is not a competitor to Bitcoin or Litecoin or DogeCoin or any other digital or fiat currency.  It's just a protocol that allows all these things of value to be exchanged directly.

https://ripple.com/ripple_primer.pdf

No.  Bitcoin is the SMTP for money.  Ripple is a company marketing a new incompatible email system based on closed standards partially opened up just to say so. 

The SMTP comparison is really a way to express the fact that Ripple is a federation protocol to bridge the gap between all money systems including legacy fiat money, blockchain based crypto-currencies, virtual currencies and other types of exchangeable values such as airmiles.
Nobody denies the fact that the Bitcoin network was the first network to allow trustless teleportation of funds accross the world, but Bitcoin network is solely designed to transport Bitcoin currency and nothing else. It is a great and very robust transport, but it doesn't federate  anything and using Bitcoin you won't be able to pay a SecondLife merchant in Linden Dollars using your BTC balance at Bitstamp (this scenario is already a reality in Ripple).
There is absolutely no overlap between Bitcoin and Ripple in term of functionality: Bitcoin is the store of value backed by the most powerful computing network the world has ever seen, Ripple is a medium of exchange where Bitcoin can be exchanged instantly to or from any other type of asset.

[justusranvier]

Ripple is a medium of exchange where Bitcoin can be exchanged instantly to or from any other type of asset.

Again, this is a lie.

You can't move any type of asset, except for XRP, in Ripple.

You can only move promises to deliver assets in Ripple.

[Sukrim]

Ripple is a medium of exchange where Bitcoin can be exchanged instantly to or from any other type of asset.

Again, this is a lie.

You can't move any type of asset, except for XRP, in Ripple.

You can only move promises to deliver assets in Ripple.

Do you post this stuff in any other exchange's announcements too?

[corebob]

I get the impression that a better question would be "What is the difference between Ripple and OpenTransactions?"

[~Coinseeker~]

Ripple is a medium of exchange where Bitcoin can be exchanged instantly to or from any other type of asset.

Again, this is a lie.

You can't move any type of asset, except for XRP, in Ripple.

You can only move promises to deliver assets in Ripple.

The funds that are reflected in your bank account or Paypal account or Bitstamp or BTC-e or Cryptsy or Visa card or Reward Points cards, etc...are all just balances.  What's a balance?  It's just an IOU.  They "owe you", X amount.

Ripple just allows people to exchange these balances (IOU's) between one another.  The trust you put in the places where you have balances (IOU's), is really up to you and has nothing to do with Ripple.  

I get the impression that a better question would be "What is the difference between Ripple and OpenTransactions?"

I'm not totally familiar with how OpenTransactions works but from what I've heard around, it would be a much more compariable "idea", than trying to compare Ripple to Bitcoin or any other currency.

[Sukrim]

I get the impression that a better question would be "What is the difference between Ripple and OpenTransactions?"

Open Transaction is (if anyone actually would use it) more similar to the stock exchange system (you list your stuff on certain exchanges and trade there) while Ripple is more similar to the banking system (you connect to a global market).

In OT, you find your trading partner, agree on a server and trade there in high speeds and in secret hidden from anyone else. I'm not so sure how double spends are prevented then, but that is a mere technicality if for example servers talk to each other. I'm also not sure how they fight spam, maybe they just attach a small PoW to each transaction or so (e.g. submit a transaction + nonce that meets a certain difficulty if combined with the TXID) or do something different.

On Ripple you only have this single network you trade on, with the benefit of having the maximum possible liquidity and offer range and the downside that everything has to be public and due to it being a globally distributed system it still takes relatively long compared to what traders in other areas are used to.

[colour]

From this thread:

So why does the Ripple thread stay in Bitcoin Discussion?

I remember when Ripple promoters kept about 4 or 5 Ripple threads on the first page of Bitcoin Discussion at all times, until it became obvious what they were doing. Consequently, all Ripple threads were removed to Service Discussion (I think), and the activity in these threads went to zero rather quickly. I miss those times...

[Sukrim]

Ripple != XRP. The sooner you realize this, the better.