Topic: Is Ripple a Bitcoin Killer or Complementer? Founder of Mt Gox will launch Ripple - page 2. (Read 34129 times)

Can anyone speak about ripple's inflation? How many XRP are there? How many will be there?

The ripple founders created the initial ripple ledger with 100 billion XRP. The founders gifted a for profit company called Opencoin 80 billion XRP. Opencoin intends to give away over 50 billion XRP. The remainder will be used to fund Opencoin operations, which include contributing code to the open source network and promoting the network.

Buying mass amounts of XRP, got any I want em.

That's correct.

I'm going from memory here, but this should be roughly correct: Every 256 ledgers is a "flag ledger". Validations for a flag ledger can include fields for what you think the XRP cost for a transaction and reserves should be. During the ledger interval after the flag ledger, nodes collect validations from the flag ledger and make their own determination of what the values should be (based both on what they want and what nodes they trust want). Nodes can then introduce pseudo-transactions to change these values into the transaction set of the next ledger. If one of these pseudo-transactions gets accepted, then the fees are changed.

Before the system was named "Ripple", ripples were called "stamps".

From the little information on the subject, I guess that the Ripple protocol has some mechanism for nodes to come to a consensus on tuning network parameters (like the amount of XRP required to fund an account, or the cost per transaction) to ideal values.

Everyone keeps thinking of XRPs as some sort of currency but they are more akin to a low-value postage stamp.

What prevents people to just make a new fork and have no "premined" coins at all?

Or prevent someone from making their own "foundation" with ripple fork and keep only 40%...30%...etc..

I have to say, I dont like the fact that the creators of Ripple just decided to keep 50% of all XRP ever in existance.
What prevents people to just make a new fork and have no "premined" coins at all?

I have to say, I dont like the fact that the creators of Ripple just decided to keep 50% of all XRP ever in existance.

What prevents people to just make a new fork and have no "premined" coins at all?

Will XRP be the first alternative currency used on Mt Gox ?

We expect all major Bitcoin exchanges to operate as ripple Gateways too.

No, my argument is that if all members of a set are not scarce, then members of a subset of that set cannot be scarce. That is clearly true.

they could settle using btc or something.

I'm not quite sure where you're going with this. It would be more correct to say that there is value in the fact that others believe and act on the information, which is a service, not a good. If they simply knew it, but didn't act on it--for example, if they accepted conflicting or otherwise invalid transactions--then it wouldn't matter how widely the information was distributed.

Your argument is essentially that if [some] members of a set are not scarce, then members of a subset of that set cannot be scarce. That is clearly false.

Bitcoins are not just made up of information, they are created (mined) from people around the world who used their machines to do the mining. That is/was work accomplished.

There are many meanings attirbuted to the term information. Consider ones where the value of information is the difference that information makes to the probability of an event.

For example the probability of a shop shipping me a pair of alpaca socks without that information as compared to the probability of their shipping me such socks given that information...

The fact that the whole world knows the information (account X send Y bitcoins to account Z) actually enhances its value, doesn't it?

Would the shop be as likely to ship me the socks if only they and I possesed that information, the rest of the world not knowing it?

My problem with the rest of your argument is that information is not scarce, so if bitcoins were nothing but information then they wouldn't be scarce and couldn't function effectively as money.

Having done a bit of research on Ripple after stumbling upon this thread last night, it seems very very interesting. It definitely seems like it'll complement, rather than compete with BitCoin. From what I've read, it seems like an extension of MtGox.

I understand how the IOU's will work, and it's quite an interesting idea. But I'm not going to focus on those, I'm just going to write what I interpreted from reading about the system to see whether someone has any other interpretations. Please guys let me know if you think I've hit it bang on or whether you've interpreted their information differently.

Basically the impression I get is that the Ripple system intends to become a holding (bank) and exchange market for every currency (fiat and crypto) in the world, whilst also creating their own cryptocurrency (XRP). Basically, I can send GBP to Ripple, and with one click of a button, I can instantly convert (or send to another Ripple user or shop that accepts Ripple) this in USD, BTC, XRP, Yen, or whatever currency I want with no fees involved. And I can deposit/withdraw any currency I want WITHIN the Ripple system with no need for 3rd party exchanges. So basically, as I said above (an extension of MtGox) Ripple is a massive currency exchange market who intend to make profit only off of their own cryptocurrency (XRP), which they're hoping will become worth something (which it should do, as it will become a central medium of currency exchange).

And on top of this, they have the 'contacts' list which can be used to allow people you trust to borrow a maximum amount from you whenever they want.

This, is a fucking outstanding idea and I'm very surprised someone hasn't thought of something like this before. Instant payments/conversions to any currency within the system, obviously it'll take a few days to bring money (fiat) outside the system.

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And this won't kill BTC, it will complement it. Why do I think this?

BitCoins have a value, because of the black market mainly. XRP's, do not (currently) have a value. And won't do unless (like BitCoin) people perceive them as worth something. In order for XRP to replace BitCoin, they would have to become widely used in the black market, which I highly doubt will happen because look at the identity checks MtGox requires. If Ripple takes off though, XRP could gain a value based on the fact that every Ripple user has access to it, and it will be the 'central' unit used for currency exchange within the system.

Definitely going to follow this development.
This has the potential to kill PayPal. And if that happens, through Ripple, BitCoin will gain in popularity.

I will admit, I don't currently use MtGox because of their requirement for identity, and I don't really want my identity associated with BitCoin. However, Ripple intends to serve a completely different purpose to BitCoin. I would use Ripple, without a doubt.

Very excited to see what happens here.