With Ripple, the consumer and the merchant can cut out the central clearing house. Consumer sends BTC and the merchant receives USD. Confirmed and irreversible in seconds. This is distributed exchange. Globally this can be any currency. Consumer sends BTC and merchant in China receives Yen. Confirmed and irreversible in seconds. Or, consumer sends frequent flyer miles and a merchant in India receives INR. Confirmed and irreversible in seconds. The possibilities are limitless, ridiculously fast and cheap because we are trading peer-to-peer, instead of peer->to central clearing house->to peer.