2013-11-13nytimes.com

``In recent months, there has been much more excitement in the industry about decentralized currencies, which exist independently of any company. Such platforms have computer code that is usually open source, or available for editing by any programmer. This setup is seen as a benefit because it means that no central authority can determine things like fees, and who can and cannot have access to the currency.

One of the most popular decentralized currencies is litecoin, which was founded by a former Google programmer and intended to improve on some of the flaws in bitcoin, like the somewhat slow transaction times.

...

Ripple is being heralded in some quarters as a more significant innovation than its competitors. Ripple maintains not only a currency, but also a system on which any currency, even bitcoin, can be moved around or traded -- akin to a cross between Western Union and a currency exchange, without the hefty fees.



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