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Comment by philrapo | Hacker News Reader

In 2011, Jed McCaleb pointed out that bitcoin mining pools can collude. So in fact, Bitcoin is based on trust... it is based on trust that mining pools are not colluding against you.

His idea was to make this trust explicit. And that's the birth of Ripple. Ripple's consensus process is predicated on trust that other entities are not colluding against you.

The Ripple protocol is not subject to the 51% attack that Bitcoin is subject to. Making entries in the ledger has nothing to do with computational power.

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Link to the 2011 discussion that spawned Ripple: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=10193.msg146250#msg1...

EDIT: Adding a link explaining Ripple's consensus process for making changes to a shared ledger: https://ripple.com/wiki/Consensus

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Nice try Phil. Please get your Ripple propaganda off of HN. Ripple currency, XRP, is magicked up by Ripple Corp which owns nearly all of it and is the purest form of a pyramid scheme.

Just to play devil's advocate here, is there any proof to that claim?

I don't have a dog in this fight, but Ripple Labs did set things up so they would start off with all the network currency, and still own the majority of it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ripple_(payment_protocol)#XRP .

That's correct. From Ripplelabs.com:

"Because Ripple’s new architecture does not require mining [to reach consensus], the creators of Ripple faced a choice: exclusively distribute XRP via mining or diversify distribution methods to include useful mining, business development, funding third-party developers, and hiring talent at Ripple Labs, the company responsible for improving upon and promoting the Ripple protocol."

XRP is currently distributed via the "Computing for Good" program:

"We’re giving away XRP in exchange for donating computing power to scientific research via World Community Grid. Anyone with an Internet-connected computer or Android device can participate."

link: https://www.computingforgood.org/

My post is not advocating that anyone invest money in XRP. My comment is about the Bitcoin protocol vs. the Ripple protocol's methods of reaching consensus.

The primary purpose of mining is to allow Bitcoin nodes to reach consensus about the blockchain. It is intentionally resource intensive. It takes 8-10 minutes. And it is subject to a 51% attack.

I believe that the Ripple protocol's method for reaching consensus is superior to Bitcoin's. It is orders of magnitude faster (2-5 seconds vs. 8-10 minutes). It is not subject to the 51% attack. It is not computationally expensive or resource intensive. It seems like a better design to me.

Ripple protocol =! XRP. If you don't like XRP, then don't buy it. Easy solution. Ripple is still valuable as a protocol, since it's currency agnostic.

@Goldenkey - While we're making demands of each other, please take your logic-free and malinformed vitriol off HN.

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