No, Ripple depends on a handful of so called "validator" nodes. Right now the handful of validators that exist are all run by Ripple themselves. Double spend

No, Ripple depends on a handful of so called "validator" nodes. Right now the handful of validators that exist are all run by Ripple themselves. Double spend protection in Ripple comes from trusting validators not to defraud you. So Ripple is neither trust less or decentralized in the sense that the original Bitcoin whitepaper would describe the concepts.