SnapSwap 500 Ripple Giveaway - a Catch 22

[Blunderbabe]

Hi All... I'm new to bitcointalk.org--have been reading, but just registered this evening, and hoping that someone can help me.



I think by calling-out SnapSwap's less than stellar customer-service--Forbes's Alex Berezow--helped  them improve--at least in that department.  (See http://www.forbes.com/sites/alexberezow/2013/12/19/digital-currencies-misadventures-with-bitcoin-rival-ripple-xrp/)

I registered with SnapSwap two days ago, and all of my inquiries were answered by "Eddie" within 2 hours.



 Setting up an account with SnapSwap, however, was next to impossible. In order to register, they check your data against a national registry. and if even one letter doesn't match, your application is rejected. After 5 tries, I used information from a decade ago--including my middle initial and an old address. Lo and behold, it worked. But, there's no option to update your data--so they are stuck with your old contact information, aside from email.


After that, you must register with a 3rd party to send them payment for the Ripples. I used popmoney.com , which was fairly straightforward. SnapSwap also gives you the option to physically deposit funds via your nearest Wells Fargo--which seems like a bit of a pain.


This is when the process turned into a nightmare. After SnapSwap received my funds--they told me that neither my money, nor the 500 "free " ripples could be deposited into my Ripple.com wallet until I set up a trust line. Here is part of the email:



"In order for us to deliver the funds to your Ripple Wallet, we will need a trust line opened on your account to our issuing wallet with address XXX in the amount not less than the amount of the requested transaction. For example, if your deposited amount is $250, the trustline would have to be equal or over $250. Based on Ripple Network's average funding amounts trending at this time, SnapSwap would recommend opening a $1,000 (one thousand USD) trustline"



I won't even get started on what I think of a $1000 trustline...but the link sent by SnapSwap takes you directly to a page on Ripple.com preset for $1000. Even if you were out of your mind and agreed that $1000 was a reasonable amount (in order to receive $20 worth of ripple + the additional 500)--you couldn't set it up anyway. Ripple.com will not allow you to set up a trust until you are funded, however, you can't get ripples unless you have a trust. What a blatant Catch 22, if there ever was one.

I emailed Eddie at SnapSwap again, and he sent me 2 how to guides--neither of which applied, because the trust option in the Ripple.com profile is not useable--unless you have funds in the account (which, without establishing the trust you can't get!)


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06H86TNeJMw

Or the Ripple forum:

https://ripple.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=3334    




What a nightmare. Did anyone else face this dilemma while trying to fund wallets? Can any other members offer advice? Based on my not-so-brief experience with Ripple and SnapSwap--it seems totally impractical, and more of a pain in the A%$ than any other cryptocurrency out there . I don't see how it will be widely adopted until one can actually fund his/her account!

Frustrated as hell,
B

[jmerme01]

Hi All... I'm new to bitcointalk.org--have been reading, but just registered this evening, and hoping that someone can help me.



I think by calling-out SnapSwap's less than stellar customer-service--Forbes's Alex Berezow--helped  them improve--at least in that department.  (See http://www.forbes.com/sites/alexberezow/2013/12/19/digital-currencies-misadventures-with-bitcoin-rival-ripple-xrp/)

I registered with SnapSwap two days ago, and all of my inquiries were answered by "Eddie" within 2 hours.



 Setting up an account with SnapSwap, however, was next to impossible. In order to register, they check your data against a national registry. and if even one letter doesn't match, your application is rejected. After 5 tries, I used information from a decade ago--including my middle initial and an old address. Lo and behold, it worked. But, there's no option to update your data--so they are stuck with your old contact information, aside from email.


After that, you must register with a 3rd party to send them payment for the Ripples. I used popmoney.com , which was fairly straightforward. SnapSwap also gives you the option to physically deposit funds via your nearest Wells Fargo--which seems like a bit of a pain.


This is when the process turned into a nightmare. After SnapSwap received my funds--they told me that neither my money, nor the 500 "free " ripples could be deposited into my Ripple.com wallet until I set up a trust line. Here is part of the email:



"In order for us to deliver the funds to your Ripple Wallet, we will need a trust line opened on your account to our issuing wallet with address XXX in the amount not less than the amount of the requested transaction. For example, if your deposited amount is $250, the trustline would have to be equal or over $250. Based on Ripple Network's average funding amounts trending at this time, SnapSwap would recommend opening a $1,000 (one thousand USD) trustline"



I won't even get started on what I think of a $1000 trustline...but the link sent by SnapSwap takes you directly to a page on Ripple.com preset for $1000. Even if you were out of your mind and agreed that $1000 was a reasonable amount (in order to receive $20 worth of ripple + the additional 500)--you couldn't set it up anyway. Ripple.com will not allow you to set up a trust until you are funded, however, you can't get ripples unless you have a trust. What a blatant Catch 22, if there ever was one.

I emailed Eddie at SnapSwap again, and he sent me 2 how to guides--neither of which applied, because the trust option in the Ripple.com profile is not useable--unless you have funds in the account (which, without establishing the trust you can't get!)


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06H86TNeJMw

Or the Ripple forum:

https://ripple.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=3334    




What a nightmare. Did anyone else face this dilemma while trying to fund wallets? Can any other members offer advice? Based on my not-so-brief experience with Ripple and SnapSwap--it seems totally impractical, and more of a pain in the A%$ than any other cryptocurrency out there . I don't see how it will be widely adopted until one can actually fund his/her account!

Frustrated as hell,
B

Blunderbabe - I had this same frustrating experience when I tried to sign up for Ripple and fund it using SnapSwap.  I did eventually get it to work as explained below, but honestly the whole experience left me thinking that Ripple is just too damn complicated to succeed.  If people like you and me -- i.e. people who are pretty damn motivated and interested in cryptocurrencies, and signed up for bitcointalk -- can't figure out how to fund a ripple wallet within 30 minutes of trying, then I don't have high hopes for ripple in general.  (And what is up with the "trust" system -- I honestly still dont' really understand it and I have spend a while trying to read up on it).

Anyway, what I ultimately did was beg on the ripple board on reddit for someone to fund my account with 31 xrp, which is around the minimum that will allow you to activate your account (and thus be able to set up trust lines).  31 xrp is only about $1USD, so its pretty minimal, and there are some people out there that will agree to fund it either on your promise to repay the money after you have it activated, or in return for you sending them $1 worth of bitcoin.    However, Snapswap told me different information than you -- they said it was OK if I opened the trust line after my account was funded, and they also said I only needed to open the trust line for the amount that I was funding (i.e. $20).  That's pretty sketchy that they recommended a $1000 USD trust line... that makes me pretty nervous about using Snapswap altogether.  But I barely have any money in my ripple wallet anyway, so it's not too big a risk...
Anyway- I hope this is of some help.  At the very least - I definitely don't think you need to extend a $1000 trust line to snapswap.

[mehransaam]

fyi

How to activate a Ripple account
https://support.ripplelabs.com/hc/en-us/articles/200916837-How-to-fund-a-Ripple-account


Donate your idle computing power to scientific research, get XRP from Ripple Labs!  Anybody with an internet-connected computer or Android device can participate
https://www.computingforgood.org/


To Understand Ripple's Trust system
Ripple: How does it work?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgGcVv04unM