Correct me if I'm wrong, but the article begins by saying that a centralized system is bad, because you must use it to interact with the system's clients. Then it goes on to say "it would be awesome if everybody was using Ripple".<p>Beside the tongue-in-cheek comment, payment systems are already decentralized. You can send money to anyone just by knowing their IBAN number, independently of the bank you're affiliated to.