Topic: Ripple is not a scam - and you may be making yourself vulnerable to actual scams - page 5. (Read 10274 times)

What happens if I "receive" a Casascius coin in RL and I want to exchange it for the real asset but the person who made it already took the money from it - or worse: runs a hidden node that will double-spend with a high fee any coin that I try tro move off a Casascious coin so I have no way other than trust to spend the BTC?

The problem you describe happened already dozens of times in Bitcoinland and it always ended in tears and "hacks": mybitcoin webwallets, pirateat40's BTCS&T, GLBSE, Bitcoin-24, Tradehill, inputs.io...
Ripple is NOT designed to save you from your own stupidity (of trusting someone with your funds who doesn't deserve it), just like with BTC you can build insured systems on top of it, but the basis is still that you need a trusted counterparty to keep your assets, just like any centralized exchange that you use (or physical coin manufacturer...).

The problem Ripple solves is that to actually use Bitcoin in most cases, you need to exchange BTC for something else. Ripple has a use case far closer to BitPay than Bitcoin, on Bitcoin you can ONLY receive BTC while on Ripple you can receive both XRP and anything you trust to be redeemable. Yes, the latter can be exploited (just as it has been in bitcoinland for years) however it can also be put to good use, as you see from the amount of great enthusiasm people have towards Coinbase and BitPay, who are in the end centralized closed source services that need to be trusted by both merchants and users to keep their payment data safe (BitPay would be THE ideal honeypot for CIA/NSA/GCHQ!) and to actually process transactions and pay out as advertised.
Ripple takes this concept one step further by decoupling merchants, asset holders (=gateways) and payers by introducing open markets for different assets and introducing market makers (the "traders" on Bitcoin exchanges BitPay sells their coins to).

I don't get how people don't understand this after 1-2 hours of reading and still claim that Ripple is so complex, impossible to understand or anything like that, on the other hand it might be a large intellectual feat of realizing that any service that you use in bitcoinland that does NOT allow you to privately sign transactions with your own local key offline that you choose yourself is something that is a trusted service and could also work as Ripple gateway with the added benefit that balances would not be locked in on that platform.

Anyone can buy or sell XRP.

this is the ultimate premined scam. why would you let somebody control 90% of the currency, this is the cryto version of the federal reserve

if so , why othre exchange site can not exchange XRP, only your site can do this??
i do not see how you distribute these XRP, there are just people buy/sell this XRP.

Then you're out of luck, just as those who entrusted their coins to TradeFortress were, or those who kept their money in Cypriot banks. Unless you are trading a cryptocurrency inside its own system, there's always counterparty risk. Ripple lets you manage that risk explicitly. Until we get to a point where everybody uses cryptocurrencies, we'll have to deal with counterparty risk on the fiat side. Ripple (and several proposed rivals) could help us get closer to the all crypto scenario and more quickly.

No it does not. Precisely because it depends on trust, you have to specify who you trust and for how much. If you store your money at a bank, you decide you trust them and for how much. If you deposit money at an exchange, you do exactly the same. A promise from an anonymous person on the internet is worth hardly anything, a promise from a close associate has real value.


It's not just the legal system, it's pre-existing social relationships as well. But let's stick to legal systems: the same is true of exchanges around the world. If you deposit money with an exchange, in the end you are dependent on legal systems to get your money back.


I don't think you really understand the design. Ripple consists of three layers, the underlying cryptocurrency which is comparable to BTC, the fiat trading system which is like coloured coins, and a distributed exchange. The nice thing is that all three are integrated into one distributed protocol.

Thanks for explaining what a scam it is.

What happens if I "receive" something in Ripple and I want to exchange it for the real asset but the person who owes it to me (from the view of Ripple) doesn't want, or isn't able, to pay?  This is what I see as Ripple's achilles heel.

I think part of the confusion comes from Ripple striving to support the exact opposite: use Bitcoin!

It is a complementary system. As it does not target overtaking Bitcoin, but instead seeks to support all currencies, its message is more broad:

https://ripple.com/guide/#what-are-the-advantages-of-using-ripple-for-financial-transactions

Here is one of the most important ongoing concerns in our community today: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Off-Chain_Transactions

Ripple facilitates a decentralized means of making off-chain transactions.

Centralized exchanges and payment systems are a major threat to Bitcoin and crypto currencies in general. Exchanges that are relied upon for most cryptos are closed, centralized, off-chain systems.

Ripple is an ill-conceived system useful for trading unenforceable promises.  Its success depends on people mistakenly believing that a Ripple promise denominated as 1 USD is the same thing as 1 USD.

Ripple serves to insulate its users from the world's legal systems, the very same systems the users would depend upon to enforce any promises on the network.  It's broken by design - like a screendoor submarine.

Apologies - did not mean to imply that. By 'push back', I meant voice disagreement with changes, not literal git push.


It would be great to see concepts from it adapted to other code bases. Decentralized exchange systems, with support for multiple currencies, is going to be massively important to supporting a healthy future.

#Agree

In general I think all alts go to close-to-0.  I think any alt with a strong network will always have some value as a dogecoin-like "playmoney" but I think the days of alts are numbered.  the space is simply exploding and it will collapse, IMO.

Ripple is a special one, IMO.  Ripple, like many of the alts, never answers the question "why not just use bitcoin?"

Also, it should be noted, I love the idea of Dogecoin and all it stands for. 

very alt-crypto

Oh, I wasn't aware that every proposed change on github is automatically merged... The fact that it can obviously be forked is neither here nor there, simply a statement that the code and basic concept is indeed interesting.

You do not know who is actually running as a public 'validator'. It's still simple consensus, and the majority is most likely represented by those who have something to gain by following the direction set by those who used to be known as 'opencoin'. I still consider that dubious, but the process is not significantly different from bitcoin and the rest.

However, it's true that I was not aware of the release of the rippled source specifically, that seems to be a fairly recent development. https://github.com/ripple/rippled/ (also included by proxy in your original post but I consider it to be the most significant part by far)


Anyways, I hope someone will make use of the provided code and concepts without the mostly unnecessary 'premine' (I understand that XRP does not exist solely to line the devs pockets). I expect it would gain significant interest on it's own merit, no bribes necessary.

You cannot create Ripple. It is not a mining system. Via the World Computing Grid, however, you can earn it: https://www.computingforgood.org/

A lot of people seem to miss that the greatest utility of Ripple is not XRP. It is one component a system that allows transfer and exchange of all currencies.

Users are able to speculate with, trade, and spend any currency that has established gateways. Benefiting from Ripple does not have to take the path of investing in XRP. It provides a means of transferring and exchanging currency without being beholden to closed centralized systems like inputs.io.

So what about the mining of ripple? how can anyone with a desire create some XRP? They cant. you just have to grease the bankers palms with payola to get their "long term" investment.

I dont care how long your rubbed your private parts all over the code. Its still centralized and the bag holders are reaping the rewards from their turd sandwiches to all the fools willing to bite into it..

ripple is a premined scam no worse than nxt or quark

I am invested in XRP. I said above that looking for a long term investment kept bringing me back to it. I value my investment, and also what Ripple offers to the community directly and in ideas that can be adapted to other systems. Alternatives like eMunie, NXT, Monetas, and MasterCoin are important. BTC and Alts in general are facing severe centralization threats.


Ripple is open source. Users can reject the changes and push back or fork, just like any crypto currency. Validation is decentralized. If someone wanted to start a modified system, they are able to do so. I actually hope that people spin off portions of the code and general concepts to make other systems more robust.


I think you may be confused. Anyone can become a Validator. Is that what you are referring to?

It may be worthwhile reading this discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6867324


I am not sure what this comment is based on. My knowledge of the code base is growing, and I have acknowledged that. I have been impressed so far. I started investing in Ripple based on the concepts, as well as general interest in crypto currencies. My interest in it has grown more recently, following negative experience with exchanges. After reading about it more, and starting to dig into the source code, I have continued investing.

Ah, so they don't pay you. Somehow, I'm not surprised by that. However, I'm confident you have invested in Ripple, which is the only reason you spent your time trying to prop up this 'investment'.

Tell me, when did you gain the ability to run a trust node?
If ripple decides to modify their code in a way that the majority disagrees with, how exactly do you think you're going to prevent the 'community' from being forced over?

Allow me to answer my own questions so we don't have to deal with your rambling attempts at deflecting from the real issues: The community does not control trusted nodes (servers, hosts, whatever you want to call them, it's the same damned concept) and you have no power to decide the direction of development.

That's called centralization.

The fact that you even pretend that the source they have released is of much significance is laughably ridiculous. By your own admission, you must have gotten involved with ripple before you ever even attempted to understand it and looking at the source was apparently the last thing you did....

Riplle is easy,future success！   

I would appreciate if someone can find the answer to this question.  I cannot find it.

Is an ordinary user located in the US who trusts both Bitstamp for USD and an offshore exchange for USD required by FINCEN to be licensed as a money transmitter.  Anyone familiar with the issue will know the guidance note - I will try to find the link.  

*edit* link here: http://www.fincen.gov/news_room/nr/html/20130318.html