Well, it will be "crippled" in the sense that it is not too likely that suddenly everyone and their mother puts the node someone just brought online in their UNL - so someone unknown starting to run rippled would have limited impact on the actual network initially.
"Crippled" in the sense of for example "not being able to take part in consensus at all" or "can only run testnet" is unlikely, as there would be need for major restructuring of the code base to even remotely accomplish that. Also it could trivially be patched back in. I would recommend them to make rippled start by default in testnet mode (as a lot of nodes coming up at the same time might overload the p2p network with requests for historic data) with mainnet only available with command line switches or non-default config settings, but other than that I see no indications for "crippling potential" other than the mentioned "network killing itself due to sudden influx of nodes" scenario, which is not really part of the source code.
Nah, crippled as in "starting your own fork requires proprietorially and unreleased software". Will Ripple be open source or free software? There's an important distinction.
Apple has open sourced parts of Mac OS X, iOS, etc,
http://opensource.apple.com/ , but that doesn't mean OSX or iOS is
free software. Bitcoin is free software. Regardless, having source available is a good step forward.
This small thread name has the small piece of future and explains what Ripple network brings to Bitcoin community:
1.
Anonymity... Does MtGox provide anonymity, does any other exchange do that? Now after BitStamp goes with AML verification, what other bitcoin exchange is anonymous?
2.
You will be able to exchange any currency, coin, alt-coin for any currency, coin, alt-coin...
3. This kind of
anonymous Ripple gateways will start popping out like a mushrooms after the rain.
This is the clear evidence why Ripple network is
complementary tool with Bitcoin and why Ripple will just strengthen Bitcoin,
no more centralized Bitcoin Exchange Websites.
You have GOT to be kidding. DividendRippler is not a currency exchange for starters, and even if it was it doesn't do fiat at all.
It's true that with Ripple there will be no more centralized bitcoin exchange website
s. There will just be a centralized bitcoin exchange website. Claiming that trading via Ripple is more decentralized is like claiming that by using a desktop gox interface you're no longer trading on centralized bitcoin exchanges.