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Ripple is a new peer-to-peer system that allows for money transfers. Should the questions about Ripple be handled on this StackExchange, or should new one be created just for the system?

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Maybe you could post a thread on the ripple forum encouraging users to come here and answer the questions? – Lohoris Feb 11 at 12:32
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@Lohoris I did post a question whether they should join us in Bitcoin StackExchange or form their own, and linked them to this topic before it was answered. – ThePiachu Feb 11 at 13:28
Link to the thread? – ripper234 Feb 12 at 4:37
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@ripper234 - ripple.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=22 – ThePiachu Feb 12 at 5:58
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I know we initially intended for all cryptocurrencies to be in scope, but I can't help feeling like this is scope creep. Still, the Bitcoin questions were dwindling so I have no objections. – David Perry♦ Feb 13 at 17:11

6 Answers

up vote 12 down vote accepted

My recollection is that this SE was supposed to be broad enough to cover crypto-currencies generally. However, the current FAQ seems to be narrower, even saying "a cryptocurrency or technology derived directly from Bitcoin such as Namecoin". Personally, I'd like to see this SE broad enough even to cover centralized systems like MintChip if there are interesting questions about them.

I'm not exactly a disinterested observer here, being one of the folks working on the new Ripple system. It is not as similar to Bitcoin as NameCoin is. However, it is much more similar than MintChip.

Bitcoin and Ripple share these similarities:

  1. They are both built around signed transactions.

  2. They both have a public record of all processed transactions.

  3. All their system state is public.

  4. Neither's design requires a central authority.

Because of my conflict of interest here, I'll defer to what others decide.

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+1 If crap like namecoin is in topic, I see no reason why serious projects like this one should be off... – Lohoris Feb 10 at 19:46
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It's never really been clearly defined what crypto-currencies to allow, probably since there hasn't been a whole lot of crypto-currencies around other than the Bitcoin clones. I'm all for allowing Ripple and I think that might actually be the final push that this site needs to get out of Beta. Let's change the FAQ to reflect that unless there are some protests here in the next couple of days. – D.H.♦ Feb 10 at 19:57
No protest from me. I think that including ripple would be a useful addition. If it turns out that ripple gains massive traction then they can split from this SE and form their own, migrating their questions if they so desire. – Gary Rowe Feb 12 at 10:38
up vote 10 down vote

While Ripple is not a system derived from Bitcoin, nor does it share all of its characteristics, I think the questions about Ripple should be on topic for this StackExchange as we are also dealing with a decentralised peer-to-peer approach to currency.

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up vote 1 down vote

Bitcoin.stackexchange.com appears to have been misnamed as the scope of "allowed topics" is much wider than bitcoin.

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I wonder if Bitcoin will become a pseudonym for cryptocurrencies in the public mind? Similar to iPod for mp3 player. If so, then this is a good name. – Gary Rowe Feb 13 at 10:54
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@GaryRowe I doubt it will become a pseudonym, still I see no reason why we shouldn't use a wider topic, especially since the questions on Bitcoin itself were dwindling... – Lohoris Feb 13 at 16:42
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@StephenGornick: Actually, before the launch of the Beta the proposal was called "Bitcoin & crypto-currency" but SE staff decided to name it just Bitcoin. You can see from the most popular topic in the definition phase that many people thought it would be a good idea to have a broader scope. – D.H.♦ Feb 13 at 21:23
up vote 1 down vote

I think Bitcoin and Ripple are different enough that they should be split if the volume warrants it, but similar enough that they can be combined if it does not. At the moment, the latter is the case, but that may change should both continue to grow.

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up vote 0 down vote

If staff wanted a simpler name for the forum (avoiding extra 'and other crypto currencies') in the title then I see no reason for further objections. The decision may have been unfortunate but it is what it is now.

Other similar forums don't have limitations like : only compiled programming languages are allowed, just because some individuals don't like interpreted languages. Or believe that non-SQL database is not a real database or are in direct competition with their preferred database (and thus possible advertisement ploy).

Users should be trusted to be able to filter by tags.

Finally, if I am buying Bitcoins for XRPs and have some questions that may involve a commercial entity, that should hopefully be tolerable even to Mr Ansgar.

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up vote -3 down vote

Bitcoin is still rocket science to 99% of the people. There are possibly thousands of questions about Bitcoin people might ask that are not yet answered here on this SE. Despite that, I keep running into a Ripple related question or an answer mentioning Ripple.

Most new visitors to this SE will have googled a question related to Bitcoin. If the purpose of this SE is to educate the people about Bitcoin then I'd say that anything not directly related to Bitcoin should not be here.

It feels like this site is being used for marketing purposes by people related to Ripple right now.

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I have been using this site to learn about Bitcoin for about two years now. I have read most of the questions and a good portion of the answers. From my experience I can say that this StackExchange covers most of the important Bitcoin topic, what's left is mostly "I am having problems with service X". Ripple is a new technology that is quite innovative and is being developed by a lot of people related to Bitcoin. There are tons of uncertainties surrounding it. I am personally interested to learn more about it, while not being related to Ripple. – ThePiachu Mar 4 at 20:51
"If the purpose of this SE is to educate the people about Bitcoin" I feel the point is to be a useful reference site. – Nick ODell Mar 4 at 23:17
This is a flawed circular argument. This site wants to be a great Q&A site about its topic, and here we are deciding if something is in-topic or not. – Lohoris Mar 5 at 0:45
"This is a flawed circular argument. This site wants to be a great Q&A site about its topic, and here we are deciding if something is in-topic or not." What is the flaw in the argument? And how is it circular? If the site wants to be a great Q&A about its topic, then it makes sense to first decide what is on topic and what is off topic. – AntonAnsgar Mar 5 at 8:33
"From my experience I can say that this StackExchange covers most of the important Bitcoin topic" I don't think it's possible for a site to have covered every question related to Bitcoin. It's still evolving, marketplace is changing, mining is changing, laws might be changing. There is also the fact that Bitcoin brings a ton of political and theoretical questions with it. I don't believe this SE can ever be covering all possible important questions that need to be asked now or will need to be asked in the future. – AntonAnsgar Mar 5 at 8:37
   
I'm sorry to be harsh but you are manipulating the subdomain bitcoin.se.com to promote a direct competitor/alternative to Bitcoin. You are using the possible traffic this site will generate to make people learn about your project. You're asking questions related to Ripple and answering them yourself. This is artificial. I don't think this is a good direction for this SE. – AntonAnsgar Mar 5 at 8:40

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