Update README.md (RIPD-601)

README.md

@@ -1,3 +1,77 @@
+![Ripple](/images/ripple.png)
+
+#The World’s Fastest and Most Secure Payment System
+
+**What is Ripple?**
+
+Ripple is the open-source, distributed payment protocol that enables instant
+payments with low fees, no chargebacks, and currency flexibility (for example
+dollars, yen, euros, bitcoins, or even loyalty points). Businesses of any size
+can easily build payment solutions such as banking or remittance apps, and
+accelerate the movement of money. Ripple enables the world to move value the
+way it moves information on the Internet.
+
+![Ripple Network](images/network.png)
+
+**What is a Gateway?**
+
+Ripple works with gateways: independent businesses which hold customer
+deposits in various currencies such as U.S. dollars (USD) or Euros (EUR),
+in exchange for providing cryptographically-signed issuances that users can
+send and trade with one another in seconds on the Ripple network. Within the
+protocol, exchanges between multiple currencies can occur atomically without
+any central authority to monitor them. Later, customers can withdraw their
+Ripple balances from the gateways that created those issuances.
+
+**How do Ripple payments work?**
+
+A sender specifies the amount and currency the recipient should receive and
+Ripple automatically converts the sender’s available currencies using the
+distributed order books integrated into the Ripple protocol. Independent third
+parties acting as  market makers provide liquidity in these order books.
+
+Ripple uses a pathfinding algorithm that considers currency pairs when
+converting from the source to the destination currency. This algorithm searches
+for a series of currency swaps that gives the user the lowest cost. Since
+anyone can participate as a market maker, market forces drive fees to the
+lowest practical level.
+
+**What can you do with Ripple?**
+
+The protocol is entirely open-source and the network’s shared ledger is public
+information, so no central authority prevents anyone from participating.Anyone
+can become a market maker, create a wallet or a gateway, or monitor network
+behavior. Competition drives down spreads and fees, making the network useful
+to everyone.
+
+
+###Key Protocol Features
+1. XRP is Ripple’s native [cryptocurrency]
+(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptocurrency) with a fixed supply that
+decreases slowly over time, with no mining. XRP acts as a bridge currency, and
+pays for transaction fees that protect the network against spam
+![XRP as a bridge currency](/images/vehicle_currency.png)
+
+2. Pathfinding discovers cheap and efficient payment paths through multiple
+[order books](https://www.ripplecharts.com) allowing anyone to [trade](https://www.rippletrade.com) anything. When two accounts aren’t linked by relationships of trust, the Ripple pathfinding engine considers intermediate links and order books to produce a set of possible paths the transaction can take. When the payment is processed, the liquidity along these paths is iteratively consumed in best-first order.
+![Pathfinding from Euro to Japanese Yen](/images/pathfinding.png)
+
+3. [Consensus](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pj1QVb1vlC0) confirms
+transactions in an atomic fashion, without mining, ensuring efficient use of
+resources.
+
+[transact]: https://ripple.com/files/ripple-FIs.pdf
+[build]:    https://ripple.com/build/
+
+[transact.png]:   /images/transact.png
+[build.png]:      /images/build.png
+[contribute.png]: /images/contribute.png
+
+###Join The Ripple Community
+|![Transact][transact.png]|![Build][build.png]|![Contribute][contribute.png]|
+|:-----------------------:|:-----------------:|:---------------------------:|
+|[Transact on the fastest payment infrastructure][transact]|[Build Imaginative Apps][build]|Contribute to the Ripple Protocol Implementation|
+
 #rippled - Ripple P2P server
 
 ##[![Build Status](https://travis-ci.org/ripple/rippled.png?branch=develop)](https://travis-ci.org/ripple/rippled)
@@ -37,5 +111,9 @@ Ripple is open source and permissively licensed under the ISC license. See the
 LICENSE file for more details.
 
 ###For more information:
-* https://ripple.com
-* https://ripple.com/wiki
+* Ripple Wiki - https://ripple.com/wiki/
+* Ripple Primer - https://ripple.com/ripple_primer.pdf
+* Ripple Primer (Market Making) - https://ripple.com/ripple-mm.pdf
+* Ripple Gateway Primer - https://ripple.com/ripple-gateways.pdf  
+* Consensus - https://wiki.ripple.com/Consensus
+