Would it be possible for the government to copy an instance of Bitcoin (or some variation) and then, instead of having miners, they create a specific amount of coins, that they then distribute?   They would simply have you exchange your current dollars for the new currency.   Kind of like people had to do with gold back during the gold confiscation in the US.  Poof - cashless society where everything is tracked.

Is this a doable government scenario, or is this just crazy, paranoid, conspiracy theory stuff?

Did you get some free XRP (ripples) in the giveaway but don't want them?

I'll buy them. 

Current rate is: .125 BTC for 25,000 XRP

If you get the promotional XRP you can send me the 25,000 and still have an account that you can use and plenty of ripples to do transactions if you still choose to.

PM me when you're ready to sell.

I was thinking the same thing and possibly another exchange to turn BTC into notes in gateway (no USD or currency just virtual coins to avoid issues).   If you're interested in collaborating, PM me.

I agree - there should be an easier way.   The exchange is within Ripple, but you need xrp to participate in it.   One of the developers is saying that in the future, vendors (exchanges?) will most likely fund your Ripple account with the required xrp to get you started.

I wonder if a custom interface could be created for specific companies.

Or I can sell you them at higher than market (since I want to hold XRP) - 30,000 xrp for .5 BTC  PM me if you want to go that route.  It would be better for you though if you borrowed a few xrp from me, made the transaction in Ripple and then sent me my xrp back.

But either way.

I'll send you some to get you started and then you can buy them on the exchange there.   You can send me some back once you're up and running.  Deal?

These are some legitimate gripes.

I was referred to a XRP vendor by one of the developers and they sent me to a place that sold them to me at 2.3 times the market rate (I'd still be happy if Open Coin would send me 130,000 ripples (XRP) to compensate for that blatant rip-off).

Another issue is that the interface records transactions incorrectly (they seem to be correct in the ledger, but incorrect on the interface screen).

All that aside, it looks like it could shape up in to an awesome system.

Do you need some ripples to get started?

I'm either in Cleveland or Sandusky a few times a year, so let me know.

In the future you'd likely be able to use Ripple contracts. (note, the details on that wiki page would be hidden behind a user friendly interface in the client).  Keep in mind that Ripple is in Beta; it's not complete.

In the mean-time you could find a trusted third party to act as escrow/intermediatary or just both use 'send'. This is very much like how current bitcoin-otc trading works.

There might be a clever way to kludge the existing trading system to do what you ask, but it's non-obvious how to do it (at least to me).
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Thanks.  I had read the contract part previously (it looks awesome), but I'm not sure they need any of that functionality to do what I'm suggesting.

You just put in an order like you normally do and the other side could either accept or decline.   Nice and easy.

Why would I have to trust them if we are using notes (IOUS) that we both trust?

I would like to do the same type of transaction that can be done in an exchange order except privately - then no trust is needed in the other party - we just need to trust the gateways that issued the notes.

I see the trade function for when you want to put something in the market for anyone to purchase, but what if you want to do a private trade?   Two people agree to something outside of Ripple and want to use Ripple to complete the transaction (almost like an Escrow).  How do you go about that?

In other words, if I send $1000US-BITSTAMP to Joe Blow and he is supposed to give me 5 BTC-BITSTAMP I have to hope he sends it if I use the basic send button, but if I put it in the Trade section - then anyone can fulfill the deal and the private deal gets destroyed.

How do we do private trades that do the same thing that the public trade interface does?

I guess the issue I'm trying to address is that once the IOU (the note) is transferred back to the originator - the transaction history is done in Ripple.  Yes?

So when I get USD-BT and I'm the issuer, I now owe that person x amount of USD (real cash).  However, once the USD-BT is sent back to my address Ripple as a ledger is done (there is no way to confirm that the actual cash was paid).  

Is this correct?

Only you need 50,000,000 xrp to equal 10,000 BTC (after all BTC is mined) (If my calculations are correct).

I haven't cashed out any Bitstamp USD or BTC yet (back to my Bitstamp account), but I assume you just send the amount you want to withdraw from the Ripple system back to an address Bitstamp provides.  Is that correct?

Now this brings up some questions, but I'll start with this scenario...

If I send an IOU back to the originator of that IOU, how does the Ripple system know the obligation is fulfilled?

For example, let's say I create an IOU called USD-BT.  Someone comes into my store with cash, I issue that amount of USD-BT to them to their Ripple account.   They can come to me whenever they would like to redeem for cash again.   Now let's say they come in and want that cash today, they walk in and send me the IOUs back to my address, but I don't give them the cash.   How does that information get relayed through the system so that people would realize that these IOU's are now worthless (at least in that case)?

Am I missing something.  Or is an intermediate solution necessary (like the funds just showing on the Bitstamp website but not being in my hands)?

You need to add Bitstamp as a trusted contact.
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I'm trying. I get this msg: "User should be either a name from your contact list or Ripple address."

I have a bitstamp user ID, do I enter that?
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Inside Bitstamp when you go to the Withdraw option and click on Ripple, you will see a link that says YOU MUST TRUST THIS ADDRESS.   Get that address, add it to your contacts, label it Bitstamp and then give Bitstamp trust for the amount or more of whatever you want to withdraw to Ripple (USD or BTC).

You need to add Bitstamp as a trusted contact.

You need to transfer in some BTC or USD from Bistamp or WEEX.  Then you can trade.   Or you can trade your 75k into BTC and then trade, but that defeats the purpose if you want more xrp.

Maybe I'll do a video to help out.  I think this has a lot of potential for a transaction system and exchange.  It definitely needs to be simplified, but once you get the hang of it, it's not terribly hard.  

BUT NOTE TO OPENCOIN: SIMPLIFY!

You should be able to withdraw your Bitstamp USD or BTC into Ripple.   You need to trust Bitstamp for the amount (or more) than you'd like to have deposited into Ripple.

Then you click on "Advanced" and then "Trade" and select Bitstamp USD (or Bitstamp BTC) in Base Currency field.

Then when you pull down the pull-down box you should see BTC/XRP and USD/XRP pairs.  Pick one and then click on the Order Book below to see what offers are being made on each side.

It certainly isn't intuitive. 

Could someone fix this?  It's annoying having to post every issue I have with Ripple on the Bitcoin forum (even if it is in Alternative Currencies).

I have not been able to get the email that is sent after registering.  I'm not the only one.   Come on.

I'll give you .0625 BTC for them, if you're interested.