Is the otherwise promising Ripple set to become a great currency fraud?
Opencoin plans to give away 50 billion XRP. It is actually in Opencoin's best interest to make this distribution as wide as possible as the system will only be successful if it can gain a critical mass of users. Giving away enough XRP to keep the system as cheap as possible for as many people as possible for as long as possible is the only strategy they believe will work.

A lot of people have suggested possible nefarious schemes and conspiracy theories around Ripple. But you have to remember, if the Ripple payment network doesn't become popular, nothing else matters. It is simply a better strategy to give away lots of XRP as fairly as possible to drive adoption. Not to mention, not doing what they said they would do would reduce confidence in the system.

Billions of XRP will be distributed as widely as possible. The system will be fully open source. There will be no central authorities. That's what's in the founder's best interests, that's what's in Opencoin's best interests, that's what Ripple was designed to be, and that's what Opencoin intends to do.

The founders get 20 billion XRP. OpenCoin gets 80 billion XRP -- 50 billion of which can be given away to promote widespread adoption. That's the deal that was struck.

Note: I'm an employee of Opencoin and one of the architects of the Ripple payment system. I am speaking only for myself.