In case you have not noticed, MariaDB is joining the list of projects thinking about how to improve MySQL replication. The discussion thread starts here on the maria-developers mailing list.
This discussion was jointly started by Monty Program, Codership, and Continuent (my employer) in an effort to push the state of the art beyond features offered by the current MySQL replication. Now that things are starting to die down with the Oracle acquisition, we can get back to the job of making the MySQL code base substantially better. The first step in that effort is to get a discussion going to develop our understanding of the replication problems we think are most important and outline a strategy to solve them.
Speaking as a developer on Tungsten, my current preference would to be to improve the existing MySQL replication. I suspect this would also be the preference of most current MySQL users. However, there are also more radical approaches on the table, for example from our friends at Codership, who are developing an innovative form of multi-master replication based on group communications and transaction certification. That's a good thing, as we want a range of contrasting ideas that take full advantage of the creativity in the community on the topic of replication.
If you have interest in improving MySQL replication please join the MariaDB project and contribute your thoughts. It should be an interesting conversation.