nice post from bibbit at ripple forum.
"Ripple will not grow quickly from the grass roots, it will grow quickly by signing up entities who already have many customers. Gateways without existing customers are OK, but gateways with legions of customers with money already in their accounts are much better.
Many religions gained huge numbers of converts each time they converted a single emperor, king or other ruler. Convert the right person and all those under his sway are automatically converted. OpenCoin should be focusing on conferences, big money people and corporate partners for just this reason.
Can you imagine how adoption would catch fire if just four people bought in, who made integration happen for HSBC (Largest non-Chinese bank. Branches in 85 countries), Google (wallet payments and play store purchases worldwide leverage Android adoption, AdWords, AdSense), Apple and Amazon (World's largest online retailer)?
If those four add Ripple integration, all the other players would be scrambling to jump on board.
OC might not be starting that big, but gateways and merchants are really important. That is the beauty and necessity of OC using the large XRP share to hire the staff, fund the evangelism to the right players/conferences and incentivize the early gateways and merchants.
Any fork of the code will be at a serious disadvantage with respect to gateway and merchant relationships."
-bibbit
let's see if OC can pull it off. this project could be big and it's a different ball game out there. OC is taking math based currencies on a whole new level.
As many of the forum users are already aware...Google Ventures investments have a strong possibility of becoming wholly owned subsidiaries. Google ventures recent investment in both Ripple and Buttercoin could look to some like competing entities...but to me, and probably the guys issuing the funding...the two will walk hand in hand and strengthen Ripple, XRP, Bitcoin, Buttercoin...and if Buttercoin is successful, probably the New York Stock Exchange and all the other "traditional" financial markets. We are talking about some of the worlds smartest software engineers, getting together to make a high performance exchange (one that I suspect all gateways in Ripple will eventually run on)...that will spill over into all financial sectors in a manner similar to what Bibbit was talking about here.
Buttercoin is not an altcoin...it is a codename for the beginning of something very big. Ripple is also the beginning of something very big. Bitcoin is our Yellow Brick Road/Bricklayer. That's what I don't get about Ripple haters...if it strengthens the value of Bitcoin...who gives a shit if it's centralized or "premined"?! In fact, without Bitcoin, Buttercoin would not exist, and Ripple wouldn't stand a chance in hell, but together, they will change the world.