Just to clarify, signing up with SnapSwap is not the only way to transfer funds to a Ripple wallet. It is just one of the ways.

And of course people should always be careful about divulging information online, but the process here is nothing new. Proceed with caution, as usual.

I signed up with them over a month ago and have yet to receive any unsolicited emails as a result. You have to provide the usual info you would normally have to provide when linking to a bank account. I was not asked for scans of any documents. If you don't want to sign up, then don't. They are just offering a service by which you can transfer funds from a bank account to the ripple network. What's the big deal?

Now, whether or not it is a good idea to be dumping funds into the ripple network is an entirely different debate, but I don't see the problem with what SnapSwap is doing...

I still get the same error when I try to send a payment to myself.

Actually, now I just tried to send a payment to myself and got an error: Path could not send full amount.

What does that mean?

I tried to send 1000 XRP to myself, paying in USD. My wallet contains both more than 1000 XRP and more than $11 or so that it would convert to.

OK, now I think I figured both of those out. Thanks.

How does making a payment to myself work? I see how to do it, but what is the conversion based off? Who is setting that rate and who am I actually buying XRP from if I do it that way? From Opencoin? Also, what is the difference between making an XRP payment to myself but paying with USD and making a USD payment to myself, which does not seem to be possible (I get a message "No Path Found")?

I did this as well, but now I'm stuck. I can't figure out how to convert those USD to another currency (or XRP). How do you convert from one currency to another within the ripple wallet?

I can't quite figure this system out. I deposited USD to my ripple wallet through a gateway (snap swap), but I apparently cannot convert those snap swap USD into XRP. I tried placing an order through bitstamp but it didn't work as my USD came through a different gateway.

So how do I convert those USD to XRP? If I can't, then what is the use of new gateways for USD like snap swap?

XRP do have value actually, because people value XRP, as we can see by the current exchange rate with BTC. Also, the "price" for one transaction in the ripple network is much less than 1 XRP, so you're answer isn't really correct in that sense either.

Thanks for this interesting thread.

Maybe it's just because it's late and I need to get to sleep, but I feel like after reading this and other threads I'm more confused about how bitcoin will coexist with ripple. I came to this forum because I was interested in learning more about ripple. Personally I don't have too much use for bitcoin as it is currently implemented, but perhaps one day I might see the value in it. However, if ripple were to become widespread, why would I hold bitcoins when I could just hold xrp? I've read your explanation as to how the two can coexist, but it seems like that explanation is predicated upon the assumption that the person would see a value to holding wealth in bitcoin. I can't think of a situation where that might be true for a newcomer to cryptocurrencies. Can you provide an example? If you already did and I just didn't read carefully enough, I apologize. I'll go back and try to find an explanation.

A currency can still have value even if it took little to no effort to obtain the material being used as currency. Shell money, for example, or USD. Something has value if we give it value. The "pre mined" argument is not valid in my opinion because it supposes that all currencies should be created in the same way that bitcoins are created. There may be other legitimate concerns about ripple, but I don't believe this to be one of them.

I would say that it also offers more flexibility in that you can engage in financial transactions across borders without relying on the traditional banking system to convert currency (I think). Also, unlike paypal, there are no significant transaction fees.

The ripple network is basically a transaction system. Just like our current financial system is based on debt, so is ripple (as far as I understand it).

So you can love it, hate it, whatever, but I wouldn't call it a scam, unless you believe that our current financial system is also a scam (which I wouldn't necessarily disagree with).

Those that would argue that ripple is just some fly-by-night scam operation have not been very convincing in my opinion.

The notion of value is subjective. Things have value because we value them. If the ripple network becomes widely used, then XRP will retain some value most likely. Right now, XRP are in demand and so they have value because people are willing to pay for them.

So do you think that is how they pitched it to their investors? Their entire business model relies on dumping billions of made up "coins" to naive forum-goers in exchange for bitcoins? I'm not sure I understand how that could work. How does one just dump tens of billions of XRP into a market with only a few million to a few billion in circulation? Somebody has to buy them, after all. It doesn't seem like there are enough "N00bs" out there buying XRP to make it worthwhile. There are very large corporations investing in OpenCoin. The potential returns would have to be fairly sizable to attract such investors.

So, I've been trying my best to learn about bitcoin and ripple lately as I have essentially no experience with either, but the concept intrigues me. I must say it is very difficult to find non-biased commentary and objective analyses in these forums.

I have a few comments and questions about ripple that I would like to add after reading this thread. I'll point out that I still feel I have a pretty poor grasp of how all of this works, so if anyone would like to jump in to correct anything I've said, please feel free.

One thing I'd like to point out is that I don't think we currently have anything like ripple in our economy. There has been a lot of mention of credit cards and debit cards and paypal and centralized currencies, but those are all different from what ripple proposes to be. On the topic of credit cards and debit cards, these are not free forms of payment. Everybody seems to be forgetting that a fee is charged with every transaction. That is how banks and credit card companies make money. And they make A LOT of money (more on that later). And sure you can get cash back or airline miles from using a credit card because the card companies are making so much more money than they are giving back to you in the form of miles. Somebody is paying for those rewards because AMEX isn't in the giving away free flights business last time I checked... The same goes for paypal; it's not free. Sure when I use my debit card or if I pay with my credit card through paypal it doesn't cost me anything, assuming I don't carry a credit card balance. But that is ignoring the bigger picture of how these payment methods are used in our economy. Somebody is paying a fee and the banks are making money.

Here is the part where I may be way off base, so please correct me if I am wrong. There aren't any fees with ripple. There is the small transaction fee that is destroyed, but it is supposed to be a fraction of a percent so as to have no real monetary value. If that is the case then ripple is absolutely different from paying with a credit card, a debit card, or paypal. Merchants would be flocking to this new payment system, meaning OpenCoin doesn't have to do any of the hard work that Discover or AMEX have had to do in order to force merchants to accept their cards as payment. It will happen on its own. The only "hard" part will be getting the general public to adopt it. But as people tend to flock to new technology it seems reasonable to think that there will be many people eager to try it out. Once adoption is widespread, why would anybody use paypal ever again? Why would you want to use a credit card for every day transactions or online transactions (exception noted for rewards, if that is your thing)?

The way I see it, ripple is just electronic cash. But the advantage is has over cash is that it doesn't have borders. Why pay a bank to exchange money when it can be done instantly with no fees? How else can this be accomplished other than with a system like ripple? Sure I can and do buy things from overseas with my credit or debit cards. The exchange rates are "competitive", but I'd rather not have to go through a bank to exchange money. Not to mention there are other fees that are typically associated with overseas purchases on top of what the bank makes from changing money. And I will admit that I have been caught in a situation where I needed cash and had to pay a fee at an ATM from another bank. Again, ripple would alleviate such a problem. In a way, it makes getting or paying with cash easier if you happen to run out.

As for the whole scam thing, I haven't really seen a convincing argument as to how exactly it is a scam. Simply saying that the founders aim to enrich themselves by hoarding XRP doesn't definitively settle the issue. Since there are no fees, why is it unreasonable that the founders of the system have a way to generate revenue? Visa earns billions of dollars a year from its business of skimming money from every transaction and charging ridiculous interest rates for lending money. The mere fact that the developers will be wealthy if the system takes off does not strike me as suspicious or scandalous in any way.

Please note that I am not taking sides here, I'm just trying to understand. Ripple seems like a good idea to me, and I'm having trouble understanding most of the proposed downfalls of the system. Again, I'm still trying to make sense of these types of currencies or payment systems, so if I am mistaken in my assumptions please feel free to add constructive criticism.

Thanks!

rBcKZCeXRi1ioqr45n6BTkHs9ZwyWWTNyG

Could I convince one of you or some other kind person to loan me 100XRP as well so I can get started? I'll send it back once I get my wallet set up. Thanks in advance!


rBcKZCeXRi1ioqr45n6BTkHs9ZwyWWTNyG

Where are these other currencies accepted as forms of payment?

How does geographical location impact the timing of the crash. A few hours is a few hours no matter where you live. It has been nearly 4 hours since you posted this and the price on mtgox is currently 109.54.