There were a lot of reasons, but I think the core reason was this: If we want a world where people use crypto-currencies for everything, we need a way to get from here to there. The shortest path to that bridge seemed to be to convince banks to hook up to public ledger that could handle arbitrary assets, including bitcoin. There were many easier paths we could have chosen if we just wanted to launch an alt coin -- remember, we were pursuing FIs when they wanted nothing to do with this entire space. But we felt it was the fastest way to get huge growth. To use the same analogy again, the Internet grew to the point where it could host everyone's blog because it got the government and the big information providers onboard.
Bitcoin maximalists who care only about the price of bitcoin are lying about us. They have put their personal stake in the price of bitcoin above the principles bitcoin was founded on. The system Ripple is building will be good for bitcoin too. We're building a level playing field for using assets to bridge large financial transactions.
Let me ask you a question: Is your idea of liberty a system where everybody has to use the same system with the same rules and if you come up with something innovative (like SegWit) you have to fight for years to get everyone to agree on it?
How would you feel like if you learned one day, while you are away not occupying your house, that I sold your house's title to 10 more unsespecting customers who each believe that he/she owns the house. Thats what banks do. They create fake claims on real products and services and they sell it to masses as a recipe for prosperity. And the result is as we see now, the contrary. Bitcoin is not even close to being perfect, but again, I know that I can trust it.
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I understand your point, but you're missing the big picture. The people who got the government to build the Internet used the government to build a technology that they could not control and that was inherently liberating. Telling them that they're betraying their principles because they're working on "the government's network" would have been severely wrongheaded.
What are we trying to get the banks to do? That's what is important.
I'm out there every day actually doing something significant about the problem. And we've formed an army of smart people who are all passionate about it. Come to San Francisco some time and talk to us.
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