Ripple - Ripplescamcoin = Better Ripple
Just release the source code already, I don't want to use XRP.
Pretty much.
Even if it's debatable if the Better Ripple end is above or below epsilon, it's still undebatable that Ripple - Ripplescamcoin = Better Ripple.
Noticing the elaborate sidestepping employed by people obviously attached to the Ripplescamcoin part and paid for it (
such as) I'd guess there's absolutely no chance of this happening: never will Ripplescamcoin give up (until the venture capital runs out at least); nobody will reimplement Ripple w/o the scam because Better Ripple actually is below epsilon and thus not worth it.
Life in a free world: scamming and lying no longer reserved exclusively for the government; open to the public instead. Learn to love it I guess.
The Opencoin guys MUST be realizing that their XRP do have value (something like 2 cent per XRP at the moment) and that they are traded and used like a currency right now.
It's not at all that they don't realize. They do realize, as they took the deliberate step to waste some Bitcoin (bought for PayPal's venture dollars) in order
to artificially increase the XRP exchange rate to a point where they can claim "looky, Ripple mkt cap > Bitcoin mkt cap". They figured this would somehow bring in more love, not more scrutiny.
To get a sample of that shitfest:
Taking into consideration the total number of Ripples (XRP), that is, 100 billion, and the current exchange rate of approximately 70 XRP/USD, the XRP market cap is $1.43 billion USD. Bitcoin's market cap is currently $1.30 billion USD.
Sources tell me that, in the same vein as what has been happening with Bitcoin, Chinese investors have shown great interest in Ripple, and are responsible for a non-trivial fraction of the recent rise in XRP valuation.
Remember that Ripple's key investors have connections to PayPal and Dwolla, and will want to bring them on as Ripple Gateways. Such a move would boost Ripple's valuation well into the stratosphere, leaving Bitcoin behind as a beta-version afterthought.
(from obscure blogs nobody cares about nominally)
So then: whatever business strategists Ripple hired gave them the uniquely bad advice of trying to push up the price, oblivious to the fact that such an attempt will indisputably cement XRP's position among the known pump scams like Novacoin, rather than among the humble Bitcoin just-in-case substitutes like LTC. Bad move.
(An aside for Venture Idiots: submit already! Pay the fees of the
actually competent. This thing where you're hiring the retarded but accessible is only going to continue the trend where you're being publicly humiliated. You're not "saving money", and you sure as hell can't even begin to "shape the field".)