Ripple: trading between MtGox and Bitstamp

[btcmind]

In the ripple wiki it says it can be used to trade between MtGox and Bitstamp. How? What I see are USD spreads of 10%.

[tclo]

In the ripple wiki it says it can be used to trade between MtGox and Bitstamp. How? What I see are USD spreads of 10%.

I know you can trade through Bitstamp with the ripple.com client but haven't heard anything about MtGox being compatible.

But the spreads on Bitstamp are crazy high for some of the different currencies.  They don't have much volume, so not much liquidity really.  Hopefully that will change because it's nice to be able to trade between xrp, usd, btc, eur and other currencies in one place.

[dchapes]

I know you can trade through Bitstamp with the ripple.com client but haven't heard anything about MtGox being compatible.

It's not. The wiki was just using the name MtGox as an example.

But the spreads on Bitstamp are crazy high for some of the different currencies.  They don't have much volume, so not much liquidity really.  Hopefully that will change because it's nice to be able to trade between xrp, usd, btc, eur and other currencies in one place.

You mean "the spreads on Ripple" ... Bitstamp.net isn't too bad (still a lot less volume than MtGox). Other than trading for XRP the volumes on Ripple are very low right now. It's still in beta after all. It is trivial however to whip your Ripple Bitstamp-BTC over to Bitstamp, sell it there, and whip the resultant USD back into Ripple as Bitstamp-USD (and offer it there for a profit or trade it for XRP or use it in a payment, etc).

[btcmind]

Okay, I see, this was a hypothetical. I have 10% spread on Bitstamp USD via Ripple, so perhaps I'm missing something. Why are there so few gateways? Making the USD market for 5% - I will do that with a smile 24/7. Bitstamp is doing a decent job. Do they have close connections to Ripple? I must say this Ripple thing is cool, but very opaque.

[dchapes]

Why are there so few gateways?

My guess is because it's still in beta.

[btcmind]

It is trivial however to whip your Ripple Bitstamp-BTC over to Bitstamp, sell it there, and whip the resultant USD back into Ripple as Bitstamp-USD (and offer it there for a profit or trade it for XRP or use it in a payment, etc).

Sorry, I (still) don't get it. This is all quite confusing. I convert send BTC to BTC, why would I need Ripple? Wouldn't the two endpoints would have to be Ripple gateways?