With Ripple, no one can steal money. Just like with bitcoin, all transactions have to be signed by the payer at least. However, instead of POW being what selects the next miner, there's a different consensus algorithm that doesn't waste electricity. And Ripple moves more money than bitcoin per day.
I don’t dispute that. Ripple is centralized, there are dozens of centralized payment systems out there, but that’s not what Bitcoin is competing against. Creating performant, centralized payment systems are a solved problem. The question is what Ripple brings to the table that the other payment systems don’t.
Bitcoin is just as centralized now in practice. There are just a few mining pools that have the most electricity to spend. In Ripple they will eventually expand the number of main nodes way beyond what bitcoin has.
Once a transaction has been made you just need SOMEONE to confirm it for the blockchain. In bitcoin, that's the miner that happened to solve the POW. If they don't take your transaction, the next miner will. In Ripple it's effectively the same thing.
