I just tried to go to blockchain.info, mtgox.com, bitstamp.net and btc-e.com and they all gave me 504 Gateway timeouts.

Is there a massive DDOS attack occurring right now?   I haven't seen any news on the boards.

TradeFortress is participating in a scam on this forum.  I figured I would warn new users.

He is offering "1 BTC" through Ripple if you trust him for 100 BTC.   When you issue BTC in Ripple what you are issuing is IOUs.   So in essence TradeFortress is issuing you a receipt for 1 BTC.  He has failed to say how he will redeem these receipts he is issuing for BTC and when I asked him on his thread how he would redeem it, he erased my comment.

More damning is that he is using this to scam people.  "Trust" in Ripple is a somewhat complicated thing that should not be given out freely to people.   The people you "Trust" in a given currency can issue that currency and through certain mechanisms exchange it for other issuer's IOUs.

I see nothing that says that TradeFortress plans to redeem the IOUs he has issued and to make matters worse he sent the following private IM to me when I asked him about it:

One word: (actually two) - liquidity providers. I've being able to exchange my own IOUs for bit stamp ones because of a flawed feature in ripple.

So he is essentially saying he won't be redeeming the IOUs he's issued but will profit by exchanging his own for one's issued by providers that do redeem their IOU's.

This is a flat out scam.

He can pretend that he's finding a "flaw" in Ripple, but the entire Ripple payment system is based on Trust and by tricking new members into thinking that he is giving them a Bitcoin by having them trust him for 100 BTC in the Ripple interface he is not exposing a flaw in the system, but rather exposing himself as a scumbag scammer.

Beware!

Most of the transactions we currently do in the financial realm of our lives rely on trust based systems.

Bitcoin, brilliant in design, sidesteps the need for most of this trust.

Bitcoin is a sort of digital gold with a built in transaction system.  Awesome and very useful.

Bitcoin's base value comes from fanboys, folks willing to take a stand for their monetary ideology, but most importantly its usefulness in transactions that can't be done online for legal reasons or when a person would prefer not to reveal their identity.  Due to this base value, it has attracted speculators who have driven up its price way beyond its value based on its base uses.

That said, in every day transactions, is it useful or practical for people to exchange their dollars (or other currency), pay 4% to move it to Bitinstant so they can get it into MTGOX, so that they can buy some Bitcoin (another 1/2 % fee), so that they can buy a pizza at their corner store?    I'm going to go out on a limb and say "no."

This is the MAIN problem with Bitcoin.  It is not useful as a transaction system to purchase every day items and does not fit well into the current system.   Would you exchange your dollars for euros to buy a pizza in the USA?   Then why would you do that with Bitcoin?  You wouldn't unless you already had a bunch of Bitcoin or you were living your ideology.

Ripple on the other hand, is first and foremost a PAYMENT AND TRANSACTION SYSTEM.   It can handle trust based transactions that people currently use and will therefore be readily accepted into everyday use (unlike Bitcoin).

So where does XRP and ripples (the currency in Ripple) fit in this equation?

I'm guessing but...

Opencoin, Inc., is smart in that they have printed up the currency in their instance of the pre-open source server almost like a stock issue. They have a certain number of shares that they are banking will increase in value, since xrp is the Bitcoin/gold in the Ripple system. They can hand out these "shares" like an IPO without the usual regulatory rigmorole and without having banks in between each transaction. Ingenious in my opinion. However, as mainly a transaction system, the value of the xrp will only increase and be worth something if Opencoin Inc. gains an early mover advantage in the market with their version of Ripple.

Anyone can make a Facebook clone even though Facebook isn't open source. The software isn't what makes Facebook worth something. It's the network of people and the infrastructure possible because of it. I think Opencoin is attempting to reach the critical mass needed to make sure that their instance of the server is looked at more favorably because of the network adoption vs. a clone.

If they succeed then their xrp will be worth quite a bit, in my opinion. If they don't they can still make money consulting with people running or implementing the software. The former would be preferable I would think.

So Ripple is taking the exact opposite approach of Bitcoin to gain adoption of xrp.   Bitcoin people have to convince others to use Bitcoin in situations where they would normally use their regular currency.   Ripple will merely need to get people to use their payment network for currencies they are already used to (by partnering with banks and other financial services) and xrp will become valuable as a result of that (it being the only trust-free currency in Ripple).

Did you receive 20,000 xrp from the giveaway?

I'll purchase them for 1BTC. ( 1 BTC for 20,000 xrp)

PM me first, letting me know the amount you're going to send and the BTC address you'd like me to make payment to.  

If there are less or more than 20,000 xrp, I'll prorate the amount.  

If you have any questions please ask.

I'd like to test out Ripple with Amazon gift cards.  So, to make this so - the AMZ is born...

1 AMZ is equivalent to 1 $10 Amazon gift card.

I, bitaccumulation () will provide 1 service for AMZ:

1)  I will send 1 $10 Amazon gift card for every 1 AMZ sent to me (free US Shipping).  Alternatively, I can scratch off the card and email you the code (faster).

I will NOT be accepting Amazon gift cards through the mail in return for AMZ at this time.  An acquaintance has 100 $10 gift cards and he has given me 20 of them in return for the first issuance of 20 AMZ's so that this test could take place.  I'm not comfortable taking gift cards from strangers since I don't know how to make sure they are real.   So for now there will be just these 20 AMZ's issued by me and I will not be accepting gift cards via mail.  This is just a test for now.

Notes:

I am not going to make a market in AMZ.  Trust me only for delivery of Amazon $10 gift cards or email delivery of the code. There may or may not be a market for AMZ by other parties.

* In order to handle official bitaccumulation AMZ in ripple, you must trust the address () for an amount of AMZ that you are willing to hold.

* Your trust in bitaccumulation means:
1) You trust me to make sure the Amazon gift cards I receive are real and have the balance stated.
2) You trust me to properly ship the gift cards.

* delivery details: 1 $10 Amazon gift card will allow you to purchase $10 worth of goods from Amazon.com.  NOTE:  These gift cards only work in the USA based AMAZON.com and will not work on other Amazon sites.   For this reason, I will only be shipping the cards to US residents.  Amazon cards do not expire and do not have fees for non-use.    No redemptions will be made for amounts under 1 AMZ.  All redemptions must be done in 1 AMZ increments - I have no current way to redeem fractions of a $10 Amazon gift card.   PM me if this becomes an issue, but I suggest you try to keep any trading you do (if there is a market) in whole units of AMZ for now.

* How to redeem your AMZ: Simply PM me BEFORE YOU SEND THE AMZ TO ME something like the following - "I want to redeem an amount of AMZ, will be coming from address r....., Please send the physical Amazon $10 gift cards to Bob Smith, 123 Maple Street, anytown USA. or alternatively - please email me the code to <email address>"  When I see the AMZ come in, I'll ship them out right away at my expense (or email them to you once I see your message). Think of AMZ as a warehouse receipt for a $10 Amazon gift card. The supply of AMZ decreases with a redemption.

* I have issued 20 AMZ to a 3rd party as the first trade.  A market currently exists in the USD/AMZ(bitaccumulation) and AMZ(bitaccumulation)/XRP  in ripple.

* I am not buying or selling Amazon gift cards.  So please don't ask.

current inventory, 20 $10 Amazon gift cards.

I'd like to acknowledge TTBIT for coming up with the DYM currency and inspiring me to give this a try and also for the format (and much of the content) of this post.  I'm not that creative and it helped a lot to have a template to make sure I didn't miss anything.

I posted this on the RIPPLERS subreddit but figured I'd post here too to get some responses...

One of the promises of Ripple is that no one can "freeze" your accounts, and while I understand this is true WITHIN the Ripple network, what happens when you want to move something out of the Ripple network to an exchange? Wouldn't it be possible for authorities to tell exchanges to freeze or hold any deposits out of Ripple into an exchange from a particular address?

Also, since Ripple is trust dependent, people will most likely be building that trust with a particular account and nickname or real name. What would prevent a government from going after anyone that received or made transactions to a particular address associated with that name or nickname (or making it a crime for people to do so)?

Or alternatively, what would prevent a judge from forcing someone to remove items from Ripple so that governments could then confiscate them through the exchanges (or risk being jailed for contempt)?

I bring up these issues since there doesn't seem to be much anonymity in Ripple and without anonymity it would seem many of the issues Ripple is trying to address would still be issues unless some type of anonymity were implemented.


Original question posted here: http://www.reddit.com/r/ripplers/comments/1dew7r/potential_issues_with_ripple_and_authorities/

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 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 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)?

I will pay $1000 cash for an an equivalent amount of coins at the MT GOX rate + 1% at the time of exchange.

I'm in Sandusky, Ohio area until the end of this week (on business) if anyone is interested.

I did a small transaction of BTC to USD in Ripple.  .01 BTC

However it seems that it took more than .01 BTC.  Why?   And why can't I see a list of every transaction including the actual amount that was taken?  I'm not sure how much of my BTC balance was taken over the .01 BTC but it is definitely more than .01 BTC - very annoying and even more annoying that I can't look and see what my balance was before the transaction and then after (HISTORY). 

I thought the transaction fee is in ripple.  If there is some other transaction fee (in BTC) why isn't that explicit and transparent?

In Ripple there is a list of activity entries. 

 For example:
18 hours ago   You created an offer accepting 52,500 XRP for 0.5 BTC

This offer was accepted and the transaction took place (I received the 52,500 xrp).  Why don't these transactions show up in the History section?

I'm beginning to wrap my head around Ripple a little bit and I have some questions.

1. Let's say I own a gun shop and I want to create IOU's based on the most popular bullet sold in my store.  They send me cash and I issue 9MM's-BITACCUMLATION (or whatever they'll be called).  Every one can pick up their bullets on demand from the store during work hours or have them shipped to their home for the cost of postage and delivery.  Would this be a good application of Ripple and what would be the exact procedure to go about this within the Ripple client?    This same procedure could be repeated with other items like gold, silver, etc. - yes?

2. If I am getting this right Ripple is a transaction ledger for RECEIPTS (IOUs).  Yes?  Receipts or IOU money was necessary in the past because it was a pain in the ass and dangerous to keep large amounts of commodities on your person or in your house so you entrusted it to a bank in return for an IOU.  These IOUS circulated.  This bank would have a big ass safe and lots of security to keep your commodity safe.   However, with the creation of Bitcoin, the commodity and safe come in one package, so technically the need for IOUs and banks becomes unnecessary.  This is one of the best things about Bitcoin.  The removal of needing trusted intermediaries that can rob you blind.  So how exactly does this system compliment Bitcoin?  And how is moving BACK towards a trust based system useful?