LMAO
Don't laugh, maybe he was away for a year or two and didn't follow latest developments regarding Ripple and XRP
Maybe he was laughing because Sling Blade looks similar to Ripple's chief cryptographer hehehe.
I do not follow Ripple closely. However, unless their developers open the validation process to everyone, Ripple is a centalized payment system and this might make it easier for the SEC to shut it down.
Its open to everyone for quite a long time
https://developers.ripple.com/run-rippled-as-a-validator.html
there is difference between ordinary and trusted validators, but even if you start as ordinary one, you still have a role in network
However, who decides which nodes, which they call validators but are not automatically validators, are included in the Unique Node List, which should be called Trusted Node List. Who?
Read this from your link.
It's important to understand that merely issuing validation messages does not automatically give your validator a say in the consensus process. Other servers ignore your validation messages unless they add your validator to their Unique Node List (UNL). If your validator is included in a UNL, it is a trusted validator and its proposals are considered in the consensus process by the servers that trust it.
In any case, do not worry. You will understand in time.
