PotentialRippleClients

Main.PotentialRippleClients History

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January 03, 2011, at 11:50 PM by Daniel - add link to implementations
Changed line 3 from:
At the time of writing, the only live implementation of the Ripple concept is at [[https://ripplepay.com/|Ripplepay]]. At Ripplepay, the functions of the Ripple client and the Ripple server are not differentiated. A standalone Ripple server has been proposed (and a [[https://ripplexchange.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=12|funding pool]] started). After the standalone Ripple server is finished, Ripplepay will probably be switched to a client/server configuration, rather than manage payment routing through an internal database.
to:
Here is a list of Ripple [[implementations]]. At some, such as [[https://ripplepay.com/|Ripplepay]], the functions of the Ripple client and the Ripple server are not differentiated. A standalone Ripple server has been proposed (and a [[https://ripplexchange.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=12|funding pool]] started). After the standalone Ripple server is finished, Ripplepay will probably be switched to a client/server configuration, rather than manage payment routing through an internal database.
October 11, 2010, at 05:45 AM by Daniel - grammar
Changed line 30 from:
** Virtual worlds
to:
** Virtual worlds:
October 11, 2010, at 05:44 AM by Daniel - link virtual worlds
Changed line 31 from:
*** Open Cobalt, Open Wonderland, OpenSimulator, Second Life, etc.
to:
*** [[http://www.opencobalt.org/ | Open Cobalt]], [[http://openwonderland.org/ | Open Wonderland]], [[http://opensimulator.org/wiki/Main_Page | OpenSimulator]], [[http://secondlife.com/ | Second Life]], etc.
October 11, 2010, at 05:37 AM by Daniel - add Virtual worlds
Added lines 30-31:
** Virtual worlds
*** Open Cobalt, Open Wonderland, OpenSimulator, Second Life, etc.
Changed line 22 from:
*** phpBB (e.g. [[https://ripplexchange.com/ | Ripplexchange]]), etc..
to:
*** phpBB (e.g. [[https://ripplexchange.com/ | Ripplexchange]]), etc.
Changed lines 33-34 from:
** Smartphone software:
***An SMS gateway to track debts and make payments, which could be useful in the third world in conjunction with microfinance enterprises. (In the first world, it could be used similarly to billmonk).
to:
** Phone software:
*** An SMS gateway to track debts and make payments, which could be useful in the third world in conjunction with microfinance enterprises. (In the first world, it could be used similarly to billmonk).
*** Smartphone apps
.
September 27, 2010, at 02:38 AM by Daniel - formatting
Changed line 22 from:
*** phpBB (e.g. [[https://ripplexchange.com/ | Ripplexchange]], etc..
to:
*** phpBB (e.g. [[https://ripplexchange.com/ | Ripplexchange]]), etc..
September 27, 2010, at 02:38 AM by Daniel - add some more ideas
Added lines 19-24:
** eCommerce software:
*** ZenCart, etc.
** Forum software:
*** phpBB (e.g. [[https://ripplexchange.com/ | Ripplexchange]], etc..
** Online services:
*** Jamendo, etc.
Deleted line 31:
*** [[https://ripplexchange.com/ | Ripplexchange]].
Changed lines 33-34 from:
** An SMS gateway to track debts and make payments, which could be useful in the third world in conjunction with microfinance enterprises. (In the first world, it could be used similarly to billmonk).
to:
** Smartphone software:
***
An SMS gateway to track debts and make payments, which could be useful in the third world in conjunction with microfinance enterprises. (In the first world, it could be used similarly to billmonk).
September 27, 2010, at 12:20 AM by Daniel - remove specific economics schools
Changed line 68 from:
** economics (Chicago, Austrian, etc.)
to:
** economics
September 26, 2010, at 07:47 PM by Daniel - formatting
Changed lines 24-25 from:
* New software written expressly to target ripple:
** An internet marketplace application with vanilla classified ads, a barter opportunity search function, and the capability to use ripple payments:
to:
* New software written expressly to target Ripple:
** An internet marketplace application with vanilla classified ads, a barter opportunity search function, and the capability to use Ripple payments:
September 26, 2010, at 05:09 AM by Daniel - formatting
Changed lines 20-23 from:
*** [[http://www.bittorrent.com/ | BitTorrent]] (data transfer)
*** [[http://boinc.berkeley.edu/ | BOINC]] (processing credits)
*** [[https://www.torproject.org/ | Tor]] (routing)
*** [[http://yacy.net/ | YaCy]] (search services)
to:
*** [[http://www.bittorrent.com/ | BitTorrent]] (data transfer).
*** [[http://boinc.berkeley.edu/ | BOINC]] (processing credits).
*** [[https://www.torproject.org/ | Tor]] (routing).
*** [[http://yacy.net/ | YaCy]] (search services).
Changed line 26 from:
*** [[https://ripplexchange.com/ | Ripplexchange]]
to:
*** [[https://ripplexchange.com/ | Ripplexchange]].
Changed lines 32-33 from:
*** [[http://www.villagetelco.org/about/mesh-potato/ | Mesh Potato]]
*** [[https://www.open-mesh.com/ | Open-Mesh]]
to:
*** [[http://www.villagetelco.org/about/mesh-potato/ | Mesh Potato]].
*** [[https://www.open-mesh.com/ | Open-Mesh]].
Changed line 36 from:
*** [[https://www.link2voip.com/ | Link2VoIP]]
to:
*** [[https://www.link2voip.com/ | Link2VoIP]].
September 26, 2010, at 04:25 AM by Daniel - formatting
Deleted line 40:
September 26, 2010, at 04:25 AM by Daniel - clean up
Deleted line 23:
Deleted line 28:
Changed line 46 from:
Important questions for Ripple stakeholders (developers, evangelists) are:
to:
Important questions for Ripple stakeholders (users, developers, evangelists, etc.) include:
Changed line 57 from:
* open
to:
* Open:
Changed line 62 from:
* money
to:
* Money:
Changed line 67 from:
* liberty
to:
* Liberty:
Changed line 72 from:
* other
to:
* Other:
Changed lines 82-83 from:
An important factor in finding profitable uses of Ripple is that it should be easy to get customers to start using it. Convincing customers to switch to Ripple is not easy -- it requires time and effort for the customer to understand the benefits, and time and effort for us to describe the benefits. Instead, by ripplizing value that's already been signified by the user, we only have to solve the technical problems by working with a small number of value-organizers, not convince a lot of value-sharers. Examples of already-signified value include automatically generated and tracked value such as computational resources (e.g. CPU/RAM spent calculating a BOINC result, measured in BOINC points), as well as manually generated and tracked value such as community participation that's ''already tracked'' (e.g. volunteer time spent commenting on blogs, measured by user karma points).
to:
An important factor in finding profitable uses of Ripple is that it should be easy to get customers to start using it. Convincing customers to switch to Ripple is not easy -- it requires time and effort for the customer to understand the benefits, and time and effort for us to describe the benefits. Instead, by Ripplizing value that's already been signified by the user, we only have to solve the technical problems by working with a small number of value-organizers, not convince a lot of value-sharers. Examples of already-signified value include automatically generated and tracked value such as computational resources (e.g. CPU/RAM spent calculating a BOINC result, measured in BOINC points), as well as manually generated and tracked value such as community participation that's ''already tracked'' (e.g. volunteer time spent commenting on blogs, measured by user karma points).
September 26, 2010, at 04:23 AM by Daniel - close bracket
Changed lines 3-4 from:
At the time of writing, the only live implementation of the Ripple concept is at [[https://ripplepay.com/|Ripplepay]. At Ripplepay, the functions of the Ripple client and the Ripple server are not differentiated. A standalone Ripple server has been proposed (and a [[https://ripplexchange.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=12|funding pool]] started). After the standalone Ripple server is finished, Ripplepay will probably be switched to a client/server configuration, rather than manage payment routing through an internal database.
to:
At the time of writing, the only live implementation of the Ripple concept is at [[https://ripplepay.com/|Ripplepay]]. At Ripplepay, the functions of the Ripple client and the Ripple server are not differentiated. A standalone Ripple server has been proposed (and a [[https://ripplexchange.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=12|funding pool]] started). After the standalone Ripple server is finished, Ripplepay will probably be switched to a client/server configuration, rather than manage payment routing through an internal database.
September 26, 2010, at 04:22 AM by Daniel - clean up
Changed lines 1-5 from:
The goal of Ripple servers, and of the Ripple Project overall, is to enable many types of applications to communicate with each other in order to establish credit, and make and route payments in a decentralized, non-hierarchical, and distributed way.

At the time of writing, the only live implementation of the Ripple concept is at [[https://ripplepay.com/|Ripplepay]. At Ripplepay, the functions of the Ripple client and the Ripple server are not differentiated. A standalone Ripple server has been proposed (and a [[https://ripplexchange.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=12|funding pool started]]). After the standalone Ripple server is finished, Ripplepay will probably be switched to a client/server configuration, rather than manage payment routing through an internal database.

For the Ripple Project to succeed in its present vision, Ripplepay will be only the first of many ripple clients. The vision is that a wide array of existing software will be enhanced to become Ripple-enabled, and at the same time that completely new software will be written expressly to target the Ripple payment systems.  As the Ripple Project gains traction, we hope to see:
to:
The goal of Ripple servers, and of the Ripple Project overall, is to enable many types of applications to communicate with each other in order to establish credit and make and route payments in a decentralized, non-hierarchical, and distributed way.

At the time of writing, the only live implementation of the Ripple concept is at [[https://ripplepay.com/|Ripplepay]. At Ripplepay, the functions of the Ripple client and the Ripple server are not differentiated. A standalone Ripple server has been proposed (and a [[https://ripplexchange.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=12|funding pool]] started). After the standalone Ripple server is finished, Ripplepay will probably be switched to a client/server configuration, rather than manage payment routing through an internal database.

For the Ripple Project to succeed in its present vision, Ripplepay will be only the first of many Ripple clients. The vision is that a wide array of existing software will be enhanced to become Ripple-enabled, and at the same time that completely new software will be written expressly to target the Ripple payment systems.  As the Ripple Project gains traction, we hope to see:
Changed line 36 from:
*** use wifi in phones to get phones ripplized
to:
*** Use wifi in phones to get phones Ripplized.
Changed line 41 from:
** Distributed data collection/analysis
to:
** Distributed data collection/analysis:
September 26, 2010, at 04:20 AM by Daniel - clean up
Changed line 52 from:
* What would an interface between this software and the ripple network look like?
to:
* What would an interface between this software and the Ripple network look like?
Changed lines 54-56 from:
* With the option to use ripple with this software, is ripple likely be adopted by this population of users?
* Who are the most likely early adopters, and are they more motivated by pragmatism or idealism?
to:
* With the option to use Ripple with this software, is Ripple likely be adopted by this population of users?
* Who are the most likely early adopters, and are they motivated more by pragmatism or idealism?
September 26, 2010, at 04:19 AM by Daniel - clean up
Changed line 37 from:
** Telephony
to:
** Telephony:
Changed line 39 from:
** Volunteer participation
to:
** Volunteer participation:
Changed lines 46-48 from:
In sum, along with creating the ripple protocol and server, it is vital to ripple adoption that ripple clients be created which are useful in a real world setting. These ripple clients could be enhancements to existing accounting systems, or new accounting applications written from scratch.

Important questions for ripple stakeholders (developers, evangelists) are:
to:
In sum, along with creating the Ripple protocol and server, it is vital to Ripple adoption that Ripple clients be created which are useful in a real world setting. These Ripple clients could be enhancements to existing accounting systems, or new accounting applications written from scratch.

Important questions for Ripple stakeholders (developers, evangelists) are:
Changed lines 50-56 from:
* what type of user could benefit most from using ripple?
* what kind of software, if any, do they currently use?
* what would an interface between this software and the ripple network look like?
* how difficult would it be to add such an interface?
* with the option to use ripple with this software, is ripple likely be adopted by this population of users?
* who are the most likely early adopters, and are they more motivated by pragmatism or idealism?
to:
* What type of user could benefit most from using Ripple?
* What kind of software, if any, do they currently use?
* What would an interface between this software and the ripple network look like?
* How difficult would it be to add such an interface?
* With the option to use ripple with this software, is ripple likely be adopted by this population of users?
* Who are the most likely early adopters, and are they more motivated by pragmatism or idealism?
September 26, 2010, at 04:17 AM by Daniel - clean up
Changed lines 28-33 from:
** A standalone basic business accounting package released, which also makes it easy to accept Ripple payments for receivables and make Ripple payments for payables, when a credit path exists
** An sms gateway to track debts and make payments, which could be useful
in the third world in conjunction with microfinance enterprises. (In the first world, it could be used similarly to billmonk). (How much mileage can a user population get out of the ripplenetwork if most people have cell phones but not computers? How much can be done with SMS? Because that is what the developing world is beginning to look like...)

* Other services and tools
** Power generation
** Wireless mesh networking
to:
** A standalone basic business accounting package released, which also makes it easy to accept Ripple payments for receivables and make Ripple payments for payables.
** An SMS gateway to track debts and make payments, which could be useful in the third world
in conjunction with microfinance enterprises. (In the first world, it could be used similarly to billmonk).

* Other services and tools:
** Power generation.
** Wireless mesh networking:
September 26, 2010, at 04:17 AM by Daniel - clean up
Changed line 13 from:
** Hawala networks settlement software.
to:
** [[https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Hawala|Hawala]] networks' settlement software.
Changed lines 25-26 from:
* New software written expressly to target ripple
** An internet marketplace application with vanilla classified ads, a barter opportunity search function, and the capability to use ripple payments
to:
* New software written expressly to target ripple:
** An internet marketplace application with vanilla classified ads, a barter opportunity search function, and the capability to use ripple payments:
Changed line 28 from:
** A standalone basic business accounting package released, which also makes it easy to accept ripple payments for receivables and make ripple payments for payables, when a credit path exists
to:
** A standalone basic business accounting package released, which also makes it easy to accept Ripple payments for receivables and make Ripple payments for payables, when a credit path exists
September 26, 2010, at 04:13 AM by Daniel - clean up
Changed lines 44-45 from:
* (Please add more examples as they occur to you!)
to:
* Your idea here! Please send any suggestions to [[mailto:info@ripplepay.com|info@ripplepay.com]].
September 26, 2010, at 04:10 AM by Daniel - clean up
Changed lines 1-5 from:
The goal of Ripple Server, and the Ripple Project overall, is to enable many types of applications to communicate with each other in order to establish credit, and make and route payments in a decentralized, non-hierarchical, and distributed way.

At time of writing, the only demonstration of the ripple concept is at ripplepay.com. At ripplepay.com, the functions of the ripple client and the ripple server are not differentiated, since the Ripple Server hasn't been implemented yet. After the Ripple Server is finished, ripplepay.com will probably be switched to be a client of the Ripple Server, rather than manage payment routing through an internal database.

For the Ripple Project to succeed in its present vision, ripplepay.com will be only the first of many ripple clients. The vision is that a wide array of existing software will be enhanced to become ripple enabled, and at the same time that completely new software will be written expressly to target the ripple payment systems.  As
the ripple project gains traction, we hope to see:
to:
The goal of Ripple servers, and of the Ripple Project overall, is to enable many types of applications to communicate with each other in order to establish credit, and make and route payments in a decentralized, non-hierarchical, and distributed way.

At the time of writing, the only live implementation of the Ripple concept is at [[https://ripplepay.com/|Ripplepay]. At Ripplepay, the functions of the Ripple client and the Ripple server are not differentiated. A standalone Ripple server has been proposed (and a [[https://ripplexchange.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=12|funding pool started]]). After the standalone Ripple server is finished, Ripplepay will probably be switched to a client/server configuration, rather than manage payment routing through an internal database.

For the Ripple Project to succeed in its present vision, Ripplepay will be only the first of many ripple clients. The vision is that a wide array of existing software will be enhanced to become Ripple-enabled, and at the same time that completely new software will be written expressly to target
the Ripple payment systems.  As the Ripple Project gains traction, we hope to see:
Changed lines 7-11 from:
* Existing software become ripple enabled
** Quickbooks / Peachtree -- small to medium sized businesses could make ripple payments through a plugin to existing SME accounting software. Use case might be a food coop managing a line of credit with a dairy farm
** Oracle/SAP -- same idea, but targetting larger companies that use enterprise software. Use case might be Exxon managing a line of credit with a refinery, or a utility company permitting customers to make payments via ripple when a credit path exists.
** [[http://project.cyclos.org | Cyclos]] -- Complementary currencies could be linked together directly via issuers having accounts with each other, or through users of multiple currencies who could act as exchange brokers between them.
** Banks -- The already established banking system could use ripple in conjunction with existing settlement systems such as Chips/Swift/ACH.
to:
* Existing software become Ripple-enabled:
** Quickbooks / Peachtree -- small to medium sized businesses could make Ripple payments through a plugin to existing SME accounting software. Use case might be a food co-op managing a line of credit with a dairy farm.
** Oracle/SAP -- same idea, but targeting larger companies that use enterprise software. Use case might be Exxon managing a line of credit with a refinery, or a utility company permitting customers to make payments via Ripple when a credit path exists.
** [[http://project.cyclos.org | Cyclos]]: Complementary currencies could be linked together directly via issuers having accounts with each other, or through users of multiple currencies who act as exchange brokers between them.
** Banks: The already-established banking system could use Ripple in conjunction with existing settlement systems such as Chips/Swift/ACH.
Changed lines 13-19 from:
** Hawala networks settlement software. (Excel? What do these guys use?)
** Accounting systems used by various types of
currency brokers
*** Vanilla currency brokers (Euro/Dollar trades) (Excel? Same question as for hawaladars.)
*** MMPORG game currency brokers (World of Warcraft/LindenDollar trades)
*** Internet payment system brokers (Paypal/Moneybrokers/Google Checkout trades)
*** Metal backed digital currency brokers to "vanilla" currencies (Egold/Paypal trades)
** Internal accounting of computational resources within
software.
to:
** Hawala networks settlement software.
** Accounting systems used by various types of currency brokers. Examples include:
*** Vanilla
currency brokers (Euro/Dollar trades).
*** MMPORG game currency brokers (World of Warcraft/LindenDollar trades)
.
*** Internet payment system brokers (Paypal/Moneybrokers/Google Checkout trades).
*** Commodity-backed digital currency brokers to "vanilla" currencies (Egold/Paypal trades).
** Internal accounting of computational resources within software:
September 15, 2010, at 10:04 PM by Daniel - formatting
Changed line 74 from:
** other
to:
* other
September 15, 2010, at 10:03 PM by Daniel - Add typology of communities
Changed lines 48-49 from:
Important questions for ripple stakeholders (developers, evangelists) are:
to:
Important questions for ripple stakeholders (developers, evangelists) are:
 
Added lines 57-83:
A rough typology of communities that could benefit from Ripple:

* open
** software
** content
** hardware
** etc.
* money
** alternative currency
** payment systems
** loans
** etc.
* liberty
** libertarianism
** economics (Chicago, Austrian, etc.)
** civil liberty
** etc.
** other
** geography
** business
** hobby
** charity
** co-op
** etc.

The first three (open, money, liberty) have the strongest reasons to use Ripple -- it can help solve their problems.

September 15, 2010, at 12:29 AM by Daniel - Add Ripplexchange
Added line 27:
*** [[https://ripplexchange.com/ | Ripplexchange]]
September 15, 2010, at 12:27 AM by Daniel - Add Mesh Potato
Added line 33:
*** [[http://www.villagetelco.org/about/mesh-potato/ | Mesh Potato]]
September 04, 2010, at 11:08 PM by Daniel - Add decentralized data collection/analysis
Changed lines 39-41 from:
to:
** Distributed data collection/analysis
*** [[http://www.libelium.com/squidbee/index.php?title=Main_Page | SquidBee]], [[http://www.libelium.com/products/waspmote/wsn | WaspMote]], etc.

July 29, 2010, at 05:50 AM by Daniel - fixed link
Changed line 20 from:
*** [[http://yacy.net/ | BitTorrent]] (data transfer)
to:
*** [[http://www.bittorrent.com/ | BitTorrent]] (data transfer)
July 28, 2010, at 08:16 PM by Daniel - Profit
Changed lines 52-56 from:
An important factor in finding profitable uses of Ripple is that it should be easy to get customers to start using it. Convincing customers to switch to Ripple is not easy -- it requires time and effort for the customer to understand the benefits, and time and effort for us to describe the benefits. Instead, by ripplizing value that's already been signified by the user, we only have to solve the technical problems by working with a small number of value-organizers, not convince a lot of value-sharers. Examples of already-signified value include automatically generated and tracked value such as computational resources (e.g. CPU/RAM spent calculating a BOINC result, measured in BOINC points), as well as manually generated and tracked value such as community participation that's ''already tracked'' (e.g. volunteer time spent commenting on blogs, measured by user karma points).
to:
An important factor in finding profitable uses of Ripple is that it should be easy to get customers to start using it. Convincing customers to switch to Ripple is not easy -- it requires time and effort for the customer to understand the benefits, and time and effort for us to describe the benefits. Instead, by ripplizing value that's already been signified by the user, we only have to solve the technical problems by working with a small number of value-organizers, not convince a lot of value-sharers. Examples of already-signified value include automatically generated and tracked value such as computational resources (e.g. CPU/RAM spent calculating a BOINC result, measured in BOINC points), as well as manually generated and tracked value such as community participation that's ''already tracked'' (e.g. volunteer time spent commenting on blogs, measured by user karma points).

Ripple can be profitable for its users. When presenting Ripple integration to service providers, a good suggestion would be for them to code the credit allocation to send a small percentage of each transaction to the allocator itself, and to advertise this as a selling point (e.g. "Use our product and it will help support us!"). For instance, an open source project like BitTorrent could code their software to send say 1% of each user's transfer credit back to the project team, or a blog plugin could let the admin set a percentage of karma transactions to send to the site owner.

By allowing Ripple integrators to profit from integration, it's easier to convince them to switch to Ripple, and they may even pay for the opportunity to use it (whether percentage or acquisition
).
July 28, 2010, at 05:52 PM by Daniel - Added some examples and discussion
Changed lines 19-24 from:
to:
** Internal accounting of computational resources within software.
*** [[http://yacy.net/ | BitTorrent]] (data transfer)
*** [[http://boinc.berkeley.edu/ | BOINC]] (processing credits)
*** [[https://www.torproject.org/ | Tor]] (routing)
*** [[http://yacy.net/ | YaCy]] (search services)

Added lines 30-39:
* Other services and tools
** Power generation
** Wireless mesh networking
*** [[https://www.open-mesh.com/ | Open-Mesh]]
*** use wifi in phones to get phones ripplized
** Telephony
*** [[https://www.link2voip.com/ | Link2VoIP]]
** Volunteer participation
*** karma, recommendations, etc.

Changed lines 50-52 from:
* who are the most likely early adopters, and are they more motivated by pragmatism or idealism?
to:
* who are the most likely early adopters, and are they more motivated by pragmatism or idealism?

An important factor in finding profitable uses of Ripple is that it should be easy to get customers to start using it. Convincing customers to switch to Ripple is not easy -- it requires time and effort for the customer to understand the benefits, and time and effort for us to describe the benefits. Instead, by ripplizing value that's already been signified by the user, we only have to solve the technical problems by working with a small number of value-organizers, not convince a lot of value-sharers. Examples of already-signified value include automatically generated and tracked value such as computational resources (e.g. CPU/RAM spent calculating a BOINC result, measured in BOINC points), as well as manually generated and tracked value such as community participation that's ''already tracked'' (e.g. volunteer time spent commenting on blogs, measured by user karma points).
March 13, 2008, at 03:35 PM by 190.33.59.5 -
Added line 35:
* who are the most likely early adopters, and are they more motivated by pragmatism or idealism?
March 13, 2008, at 03:32 PM by 190.33.59.5 -
Changed lines 1-5 from:
The ripple [[Implementation/Client API]] enables many types of applications to communicate with each other in order to establish credit, and make and route payments.

An application that uses ripple is a ripple client.

At time of writing, the only use
of ripple in the wild is ripplepay.com. At ripplepay.com, the functions of the ripple client and the ripple server are not differentiated. But it is intended that in the future they will be. Specifically, existing software may be enhanced to become ripple enabled, and new software may be written expressly to target the ripple payment systems.  So as the ripple project gains traction, we may see:
to:
The goal of Ripple Server, and the Ripple Project overall, is to enable many types of applications to communicate with each other in order to establish credit, and make and route payments in a decentralized, non-hierarchical, and distributed way.

At time
of writing, the only demonstration of the ripple concept is at ripplepay.com. At ripplepay.com, the functions of the ripple client and the ripple server are not differentiated, since the Ripple Server hasn't been implemented yet. After the Ripple Server is finished, ripplepay.com will probably be switched to be a client of the Ripple Server, rather than manage payment routing through an internal database.

For the Ripple Project to succeed in its present vision, ripplepay.com will be only the first of many ripple clients. The vision is that a wide array of existing software will be enhanced to become ripple enabled, and at the same time that completely new software will be written expressly to target the ripple payment systems.  As the ripple project gains traction, we hope to
see:
Changed line 7 from:
* Existing software that might be ripple enabled
to:
* Existing software become ripple enabled
Changed line 20 from:
* Software written expressly to target ripple
to:
* New software written expressly to target ripple
Added lines 25-26:
* (Please add more examples as they occur to you!)
March 13, 2008, at 03:07 PM by 190.33.59.5 -
Added lines 1-32:
The ripple [[Implementation/Client API]] enables many types of applications to communicate with each other in order to establish credit, and make and route payments.

An application that uses ripple is a ripple client.

At time of writing, the only use of ripple in the wild is ripplepay.com. At ripplepay.com, the functions of the ripple client and the ripple server are not differentiated. But it is intended that in the future they will be. Specifically, existing software may be enhanced to become ripple enabled, and new software may be written expressly to target the ripple payment systems.  So as the ripple project gains traction, we may see:
 
* Existing software that might be ripple enabled
** Quickbooks / Peachtree -- small to medium sized businesses could make ripple payments through a plugin to existing SME accounting software. Use case might be a food coop managing a line of credit with a dairy farm
** Oracle/SAP -- same idea, but targetting larger companies that use enterprise software. Use case might be Exxon managing a line of credit with a refinery, or a utility company permitting customers to make payments via ripple when a credit path exists.
** [[http://project.cyclos.org | Cyclos]] -- Complementary currencies could be linked together directly via issuers having accounts with each other, or through users of multiple currencies who could act as exchange brokers between them.
** Banks -- The already established banking system could use ripple in conjunction with existing settlement systems such as Chips/Swift/ACH.
** Financial supply chain software such as [[http://bolero.net|Bolero]], which was founded by the SWIFT bank settlement system.
** Hawala networks settlement software. (Excel? What do these guys use?)
** Accounting systems used by various types of currency brokers
*** Vanilla currency brokers (Euro/Dollar trades) (Excel? Same question as for hawaladars.)
*** MMPORG game currency brokers (World of Warcraft/LindenDollar trades)
*** Internet payment system brokers (Paypal/Moneybrokers/Google Checkout trades)
*** Metal backed digital currency brokers to "vanilla" currencies (Egold/Paypal trades)

* Software written expressly to target ripple
** An internet marketplace application with vanilla classified ads, a barter opportunity search function, and the capability to use ripple payments
** A standalone basic business accounting package released, which also makes it easy to accept ripple payments for receivables and make ripple payments for payables, when a credit path exists
** An sms gateway to track debts and make payments, which could be useful in the third world in conjunction with microfinance enterprises. (In the first world, it could be used similarly to billmonk). (How much mileage can a user population get out of the ripplenetwork if most people have cell phones but not computers? How much can be done with SMS? Because that is what the developing world is beginning to look like...)

In sum, along with creating the ripple protocol and server, it is vital to ripple adoption that ripple clients be created which are useful in a real world setting. These ripple clients could be enhancements to existing accounting systems, or new accounting applications written from scratch.

Important questions for ripple stakeholders (developers, evangelists) are:
* what type of user could benefit most from using ripple?
* what kind of software, if any, do they currently use?
* what would an interface between this software and the ripple network look like?
* how difficult would it be to add such an interface?
* with the option to use ripple with this software, is ripple likely be adopted by this population of users?