Topic: Don't trust ripple! It's a get rich quick scheme for the creators. - page 4. (Read 6402 times)

At this point everyone agrees that OpenCoin needs to eventually make the server open source. Word on the street is that will be happening within a few months, this year for sure. If Ripple does not become open source, no one would trust it (including myself). I can't see how OpenCoin would hope that XRP will be taken seriously as a currency if they do not release the source code.

Let me ask you: Does Ripple have any hopes of gaining adoption if they don't release the source code?


I much rather OpenCoin generate $200m in revenue, some of which will go to paying 20+ developers, equipment costs, CEO, marketing, etc... instead of the Bitcoin development model where programmers have to panhandle for donations.

Again, I get that there is a bad taste coming from the XRP pre-mine but it seems that folks are ignoring the facts.

So the consensus is that investing in xrp is a bad idea - then don't.
It has nothing to do with using ripple - you just need 300xrp to make hundreds of thousands of transactions in whatever currency you choose, including bitcoin. You just need to trust the gateway you use.
xrp is a bad investment by design. you only need a trivial amount of xrp to use ripple.
You don't need to invest in xrp to use ripple.

I don't think they will skyrocket in value, but as I said above, even if they're worth a single penny each, the founders get 200 million dollars. WTF?

It's bad because it's centralization.  It's bad because, as I said above, keeping the client closed source at this point is bad for EVERYONE except the founders.  We could be working on making Ripple better and more robust, but instead they keep it closed because they want to get rich quickly.  By doing this, they're actively HURTING the idea of Ripple.


 It's clear from your post history that you have a dog in this fight, misterbigg.  So may I ask what exactly is your association with OpenCoin, Inc.  and Ripple?

No one goes into business hoping to get poor      

But seriously, let's set aside emotion for just one moment. If Ripple delivers on all its promises and becomes the world-wide payment system that frees individuals from the traditional financial system, is it so bad that the founders get enriched?

If you truly do believe that everyone is going to use Ripple and that XRPs are going to skyrocket in value, nothing is stopping you from participating - you can buy XRP in bulk right now from Bitstamp (that's what I've done). Seems pretty fair to me.

this post makes no sense....that would be like saying I created a new metal...it works well with gold and silver and you can use it as a intermediary between the two, but I am only giving out 20% of the metal and keeping the rest for myself and business partners for future sales so I can buy a yacht.

When miners mine bitcoin, they are cracking a code, they are producing energy and feeding the economy with jobs (tech, energy, etc)...ripple is nothing but a get rich quick scheme. I already have multiple wallets where my buddies can send me bitcoin or euro etc... why do I need another? (people will realize this and) It will die and the people that are paying $100 bucks for ripples will be mad.

Miners EARN their coins by doing work for the network.  There is no "handing out" like there is with Ripple.  You should probably learn how the Bitcoin network works before you go spouting off BS like this.

Handing out currency to miners is no more and no less ethical than handing them out to the founders of a new currency. Use a currency if it serves your purposes and don't if it doesn't. Stop whining, Bitcoin doesn't exist to give you mining income or to let you get rich from any stash of bitcoins you might have amassed when they were still cheap. If Ripple takes off, it will be great for both BTC and XRP. If XRP ends up out-competing BTC, fine. It that means your bitcoins will become worthless, then boo-hoo-hoo.

No you're actually wrong.  The opencoin foundation gets 80% (80 billion XRP) to distribute as they see fit.  The founders keep 20% (20 billion XRP) for themselves!!  Look it up.  

Get rich quick schemes where the founders get the richest.   Is there another word for those?

I totally agree..

Yeah it's 80%.

100 billion XRP total, and they have kept 80 billion. Something like 1% would have been more than enough.

Ripple has a lot of money backing it and is strongly profit driven. I hope it fails and an open source alternative springs up.

I thought they kept 80% for themselves?

Regardless, there are idiots that are paying 1BTC (yes USD $92) per 10,000 ripples.....

Ripple is currently closed source and controlled by a small group of people who reserved 20 billion XRP for themselves.  People say they will open source it eventually but they won't do it now because they don't want to lose control.

Is this not against everything that bitcoin stands for?  Collaborative development, healthy competition of cryptocurrencies, many eyes looking at the source code to try and find bugs and security issues.  So then why is Ripple still closed source?

Simply because the creators want to get rich from it.  As I stated above, they kept 20 billion of the 100 billion total XRP.  They want THEIR VERSION of Ripple to gain legitimacy so that they can sell those coins and become rich.  If someone were to fork ripple and make a better version, it would be beneficial to EVERYONE except the founders of the ripple.  And this is why, plain and simple, Ripple is a scam.  They're deliberately hurting and hindering development of the Ripple protocol to make some money themselves.  They will only open source it when there's a guarantee that their 20 billion XRP will be worth something.

Imagine if Satoshi had premined 4,200,000 BTC and kept it JUST FOR HIMSELF.  Everyone would be screaming what a huge scam Bitcoin is.  This is the situation that Ripple is in, where the founders are keeping 20% (!) of the total currency.

People say "but the XRP is just designed to be an anti spam measure, it's not a currency, it won't have value" but in order for it to work effectively as an anti-spam measure, XRP MUST HAVE VALUE.  The creators of Ripple know this, and if XRP's are even worth a single penny each, the creators have 200 million dollars.

If you like the idea of Ripple, please, create your own OPEN SOURCE version of it.  Other people, including myself, will contribute and make it a million times better than the current version of Ripple.  And it will be owned by the community, not a bunch of shady businessmen trying to get rich quickly.  Let's not forget that the owners of ripple BOUGHT it, and they expect to make a return on their investment. 




TL;DR; In it's current incarnation, Ripple is a get rich quick scheme for it's founders.  Don't let the shady businessmen who bought it pull the wool over your eyes!