Hello from a Ripple fan

[Mike Hearn]

Hi guys,

I'm afraid I don't have much to say, but I wanted to drop in and give
some words of encouragement. I first encountered Ripple last year and
found the clear and no-nonsense writing on the website refreshing, the
idea compelling.

I've been keeping an eye on the system since then. I see some threads
about DialStation, I haven't heard of this before. Their website needs
a lot of work - dropping the communist theme would be a good start,
and explaining how their business model operates would be another (I
assume this is VoIP but with a phone-friendly user interface?), but it
seems like a good idea, especially as the goals of the project are
more interesting than cheap phone calls. Seeding Ripple will be a very
interesting way to get it up and running.

Another approach I wonder if you considered is to integrate it with
some of the new 3D online communities that are appearing, like Second
Life. Experimenting with Ripple using virtual currencies could be a
good way to get experience with how the system works in practice.

One last thing. I feel Ripple needs more exposure than it currently
has. Do you mind if I post it around a few places I know, or do you
feel it's not ready for more traffic yet?

thanks -mike

[Ryan Fugger]

On 5/6/07, Mike Hearn <mh.in....@gmail.com> wrote:
> I'm afraid I don't have much to say, but I wanted to drop in and give
> some words of encouragement. I first encountered Ripple last year and
> found the clear and no-nonsense writing on the website refreshing, the
> idea compelling.

Thanks Mike.

> Another approach I wonder if you considered is to integrate it with
> some of the new 3D online communities that are appearing, like Second
> Life. Experimenting with Ripple using virtual currencies could be a
> good way to get experience with how the system works in practice.
>

A few people have suggested this, but I'm not sure I can quite wrap my
mind around it, maybe because I don't participate in these virtual
communities. Would the users join ripplepay.com as their virtual
selves and fulfill their obligations in the virtual world? Sounds
interesting, and certainly worth promoting if anyone is participating
in a virtual world and can convince their virtual friends to get
Ripple going there. I suppose it would be no different than starting
Ripple in a non-virtual community...

> One last thing. I feel Ripple needs more exposure than it currently
> has. Do you mind if I post it around a few places I know, or do you
> feel it's not ready for more traffic yet?

I'm not sure that ripplepay.com is polished enough for mass
consumption, although I'm pretty sure an influx of users wouldn't harm
the system, and there may even be some who would like to take on some
maintenance and upgrading of the system... I'd certainly love to see
the propaganda at ripple.sourceforge.net and
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ripple_monetary_system spread far and wide. So
sure, what the heck, post away.

Ryan