Just a couple of hours ago I listened to a podcast featuring Brad Garlinghous, CEO of ripple (link)

I see ripple as a sort of halfway house, between the old and new worlds. Banks world like it to succeed because it's better to them than the alternatives.

I did find his answers to the questions of centralisation to be piss poor MN can't really argue about the fact that the founding entity holds such a large supply of coins. No escrow attachment will change that. This is why I won't go anywhere near that coin.