Bitcoin 2.0: Can 'Ripple' Make Digital Currency Mainstream? | Ripple vs. Bitcoin

[FrankRep]

Wiki: Ripple (monetary system)


Bitcoin 2.0: Can Ripple Make Digital Currency Mainstream?


Fast Company


It has been a nail-biting year for people who hold Bitcoins, an open-source digital currency that has quickly gained traction in the tech community. Last June, Bitcoins were worth $5. By April 2013, they were up to $266. Then they dropped to $70 in April. They were back up to $108 by May 7. Bitcoin is volatile. We know that much. It’s also vulnerable. Mt. Gox, the biggest Bitcoin exchange (where users go to exchange Bitcoins for other currency)--was recently faced with multiple DDoS attacks , shutting down the site temporarily.

But here’s the thing about open-source currencies: they’re open to improvement. Ripple, a platform that just received funding from Google Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and others, has created both an alternative to Bitcoin and a distributed currency exchange for Bitcoiners (and others) who aren’t comfortable using only Ripple’s currency, known as XRP.

Bitcoiners could have reason to be suspicious of Ripple right off the bat. Whereas Bitcoin was created anonymously and relies on a foundation to standardize and protect the currency, Ripple is the product of OpenCoin, a public-facing company that just raised funding from a number of firms. OpenCoin plans on holding 25% of all the XRP in existence--the idea being that as the currency becomes more valuable, the company will have more resources to fund its operations (and presumably, to make its founders quite wealthy). There’s nothing intrinsically wrong with OpenCoin wanting its currency to rise in value, but the system is dramatically different from Bitcoin.

OpenCoin co-founder Chris Larsen believes that having a central company behind the currency is to its users’ benefit. "Bitcoin does a great job with a group of folks working through a foundation, and ad hoc contributions," he says. "We thought we could get that too, and also get a core group to nurture this thing for a few years."

The Mechanics of Ripple

The Ripple platform serves two purposes: it’s a distributed open-source payment network, and it’s the home of the newly minted XRP currency. As a payment network, Ripple provides free global payments without chargebacks (minus a $0.0001 per transaction network charge, implemented as a security precaution against hackers), the ability to pay in any currency using a distributed currency exchange, and an open protocol that any developer can use. "The Ripple network is a protocol. It’s like HTTP for money. Users, merchants, anyone can use it for free without a license," explains Larsen.

Participants can exchange dollars, yen, Euros, and even completely made-up currencies, all of which are entered into the system via "gateways." Larsen says: "A UI designer and myself can be a gateway to each other. A gateway can be a friend, neighborhood, a group. Most gateways will be larger. It’s like the way Paypal works--you give them $100, they create a $100 balance." The largest Ripple gateway right now is Bitstamp, which is used to buy and sell Bitcoins.
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Full Article:
http://www.fastcoexist.com/1682032/b...ncy-mainstream


Other Articles:

Ripple Labs Announces $3.5 Million Investment Round

IDG Capital Partners and Google Ventures Invest in Ripple Developer OpenCoin

The Crypto Currency Company That Google is Investing In

Bitcoin rival Ripple looks to make waves

'Ripple' Digital Currency Challenges Bitcoin

Bitcoin Maverick Returns for New Crack at Digital Currency

Now Backed By Andreessen & More, OpenCoin Looks To Build A Better Bitcoin — And A Universal Payment Ecosystem

What comes after Bitcoin?

The promise of Ripple

Ripple, a Peer-to-Peer Financing Network, Could Make Bitcoin Great (Or Destroy It)

Google Ventures invests in OpenCoin, the firm behind Bitcoin exchange Ripple

'Ripple' is the New Bitcoin: Adventures in Virtual Currency

How Ripple Plans to Take on Bitcoin

Core Innovation Capital Backs Ripple Labs

[muh_roads]

Ripple is centralized and has no supply cap. They are also keeping 25% of the current supply on hand. The whole thing sounds worse than pre-mined alts.

How do you get money into Ripple? Is it via paypal? I can get funds into Bitstamp much faster via traditional wire. 2 days.

[Neil Desmond]

I may have to study this to see what justifies giving it the name "bitcoin 2.0". So far, it seems like it would make more sense to label it "Paypal 2.0".

[FrankRep]

I may have to study this to see what justifies giving it the name "bitcoin 2.0". So far, it seems like it would make more sense to label it "Paypal 2.0".

Ripple also includes its own internal Ripple currency, XRP (sometimes called ripples). Users of the Ripple network are not required to use XRP as a store of value or a medium of exchange.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ripple_...tary_system%29

[muh_roads]

I may have to study this to see what justifies giving it the name "bitcoin 2.0". So far, it seems like it would make more sense to label it "Paypal 2.0".

That is the best way to put it.

What they are advertising here with Ripple is something that is pegged to the dollar 100% so it is stable "unlike Bitcoin", they say. Only a Keynesian that doesn't understand supply and demand would say this is Bitcoin 2.0

How Ripple expects to keep the price stable will be based on diluting or extracting from their 25% pool most likely. And probably increasing the supply later when needed if their business grows. Sounds like a digital central bank.

[muh_roads]

Ripple also includes its own internal Ripple currency, XRP (sometimes called ripples). Users of the Ripple network are not required to use XRP as a store of value or a medium of exchange.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ripple_...tary_system%29

Why would you consider it a store of value if its purpose is to follow the dollar?

EDIT: For all the hating I see you do in other threads about Bitcoin, you clearly haven't done your homework.

[extrmmxer]

Ripple is centralized and has no supply cap.

This nails it.

[FrankRep]

Ripple is centralized and has no supply cap.

This nails it.

XRP can not be debased. When the Ripple network was created, 100 billion XRP was created.
- https://ripple.com/wiki/Ripple_credits

[muh_roads]

XRP can not be debased. When the Ripple network was created, 100 billion XRP was created. The founders gave 80 billion XRP to the Ripple Labs.
- https://ripple.com/wiki/Ripple_credits

FTFY because you curiously left out the next sentence. It's like an 80% pre-mined alt.

So is it 80% or is it 25%? Somebody needs to update their wikipedia page. They must have re-thought how they advertise themselves and realized owning 25% of the currency you created sounds better than owning 80%...lol

Also I doubt greatly they won't just dilute the currency since it is centrally controlled. Peercoin has a limit of 2 billion, but they admit more will be created due to the nature of its system. And with Ripple, we're talking about something made by a company where outsiders get no say in its development process. Their "version" of open-source just means they allow you to see what they are doing...(for now).

The difference between this thing and Bitcoin is night and day. Bitcoin is a community. And thankfully the price isn't pegged or controlled. Unlike Ripple where the intent is to fix the price.

[kpitcher]

Ripple is 100% pre-mined. What they are doing is giving away ripples. There hasn't been any announcement on how they expect to do this entirely or fairly. I signed up and got 5,000 ripples for simply signing up. Might as well head there and do so yourself.

I'd only need like 60K more to buy a bitcoin!

[dannno]

Ripple is 100% pre-mined. What they are doing is giving away ripples. There hasn't been any announcement on how they expect to do this entirely or fairly. I signed up and got 5,000 ripples for simply signing up. Might as well head there and do so yourself.

I'd only need like 60K more to buy a bitcoin!

The first step to signing up is to join the "World Community Grid"

[oyarde]

When I was younger , Ripple meant something else .

[dannno]

When I was younger , Ripple meant something else .

For me it means there's no surf - only ripples.

[muh_roads]

The first step to signing up is to join the "World Community Grid"

I agree. It sounds like a trap. I think the head guy at Ripple has wine & dined with regulators in the past.

[PaulConventionWV]

That is the best way to put it.

What they are advertising here with Ripple is something that is pegged to the dollar 100% so it is stable "unlike Bitcoin", they say. Only a Keynesian that doesn't understand supply and demand would say this is Bitcoin 2.0

How Ripple expects to keep the price stable will be based on diluting or extracting from their 25% pool most likely. And probably increasing the supply later when needed if their business grows. Sounds like a digital central bank.

Hmmm... methinks this "Ripple" is a ploy to get people to move from bitcoin to Ripple where they can control them. It won't work, though.

[FrankRep]

The first step to signing up is to join the "World Community Grid"

World Community Grid (WCG) is an effort to create the world's largest public computing grid to tackle scientific research projects that benefit humanity. Launched on November 16, 2004, it is funded and operated by IBM with client software currently available for Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, and FreeBSD operating systems.

Using the idle time of computers around the world, World Community Grid's research projects have analyzed aspects of the human genome, HIV, dengue, muscular dystrophy, cancer, influenza, rice crop yields, and clean energy. The organization has so far partnered with over 400 other companies and organizations to assist in its work and has over 73,000 active registered users as of June 2013.