Centralized exchanges have long governed Bitcoin transactions. From the plights of Bitinstant to the regulatory, technical demise of Mt. Gox to the wipeouts of centralized wallets by hacking, we have witnessed costly screwups by centralized players. Subject to regulation and easily targeted by world governments and hackers alike, centralized exchanges have no place in the new economy. Tragically, the Bitcoin community has trashed the very savior of Bitcoin transactions from the start: Ripple. Ripple offers a means to conduct transactions instantly with little to no fees in a decentralized manner. This means no longer do we have to wait for confirmations or trust exchanges to be technically capable or safe from a regulatory standpoint - no longer do we have to rely on centralized merchanting solutions. We can bypass confirmation times and reduce fraud to zero by conducting merchanting on the Ripple protocol.
Why hasn't the Bitcoin community caught on? Now is the perfect time - when Mt. Gox withdraws finally come through send that Bitcoin to the Ripple protocol and enjoy freedom once more!
Instead of disregarding Ripple because some Bitcoiner has told you that it is centralized (lie), Ripple isn't open-source (lie) or Ripple is premined (this isn't bitcoin, there is no wasteful mining - lie), think for yourself for once. Remember this. Ripple is competing with BitPay, NOT Bitcoin.
If you do not understand Ripple, I suggest Peercover.com - incredibly user friendly!
I've tried my hardest to like Ripple, used it for 6 months. I have no issue with the distribution. The issue is the way it works. ITS A ROYAL PAIN IN THE ASS. I still ahve coins in my wallet that I can't work out how to sell cause I have to set up a gateway with a specific trader. ITS AWFUL it drove me to tears. Since using Bitcoin its been a breeze, never had an issue with transactions. I don't care what anyine says about Ripple its not easy and quick, its a pain and slow in the end to do anything. Maybe somone will build a financial service on top of it until then I say to people stay away from that crap.
Now we do need a decentralized instant system so I'm sure you will be the first to welcome the new decentralised exchange coming to NXT very soon?