i recommend bitstamp when buying xrp.

by bitstamp, i mean using them as a gateway to get funds inside ripple then use the trading feature to get xrp. you get a much better price that way.

what do you mean by use? xrp is created to protect the network from abuse and to act as a bridge currency. users of ripple are not required to use xrp as a medium of exchange or as a store of value. you can use any currency in ripple be it usd, btc or cny ... etc. please read the ripple primer. https://ripple.com/ripple_primer.pdf

but xrp's price does have the tendency to trend up or down. that's why it makes sense trading them for profit.

edit: if "use" you mean is some merchant accepting xrp as payment, then the answer is not at the moment. only btc and ltc are the two crypto's mostly being accepted as payment right now. the rest are being bought and sold for speculation and trading purposes.

edit 2: your question actually made me look around. i found these sites.

http://jacktherippler.com

http://www.rippleflip.com/

http://lottoxrp.com/

of course! lol. i hope they make a ripple poker site. nom nom nom.

Forgive me, my wording wasn't very clear in my first post. And thanks for linking the ripple primer! I learned a bit more and see potential with it.

I understood that XRP is not supposed to be used as a currency. What XRP will supposedly be used for is facilitating transactions using the Ripple protocol, and with this small ripple "fee" it will prevent spamming the Ripple database. (Also there's the "bridging currency" use, but that's not very important ATM)

My question should have been: Is the Ripple protocol up and running yet? Who is using it? Let's say I have plenty of XRP and want to send you my USD so you receive Euros using the Ripple network, is there a way to do that? Or is the only current use some gambling sites and speculation?

yup ripple is up and running. https://ripple.com/. with all the functionality already built and a lot more coming. but there's a lot of things to be improved on. also the network needs the volume, hopefully we see it increase by a lot on 2014.

as of now, mostly gateways and individual users are using it. but there's one start up that comes to mind and might go places. https://peercover.com/. check it out.

edit: what ripple really needs is an sdk to built apps on top of it. and ripple labs are in the process of making libraries for it.

there's also a bitcoin atm debit card or something called bitwal. http://bitwal.com/. they're gonna use ripple... so i've heard. not 100%. but well see.

DOGE (and CATCOIN) are becoming popular and traded. Supposedly 2nd most popular on Reddit. It makes sense too. If you get caught gambling with dogecoin i don't think it will go to trial.

Newbie to altcoins

Which are good to invest in and why so?

Happy ny

invest? zero.

speculate? that's another story.

^ yup. altcoins are risky. but we're all so used to risk being poker players throwing money around. just have a good br management and you're good.

scareface.vit, choose your poison here: http://coinmarketcap.com/

thanks for the link, I was unaware of the vast number of coins out there.

Shut up and take my money:

http://newsfeed.time.com/2014/01/02/...d-coinye-west/

how do you even buy Dogecoin?

It takes like 15min if you start now with some google skillz. Deposit bitcoin to some exchange, place order, done. I personally would use:
https://bter.com/trade/doge_btc but check different exchanges.

is kanye really the owner?

LOL, was gonna post this but see I was too slow.

When I saw that I thought "hmmm, why can't the poker community have their own alt-coin then?"...


Juk

^ making a coin for poker is a very good idea actually. make it universally accepted on the top 5 poker sites, with their agreement of course, and we can transfer from site to site in an instant. we could call it "poker chips".

What is the point of using this instead of a more secure coin?

just thought it might be a good idea for the top 5 sites to make their own crypto that is pegged with the usd. not arguing.

How do you make a crypto "pegged" with the USD? That's like saying it would be nice if car manufacturers made flying cars because there is more space in the air than the roads.

Just saw this on reddit:

Coingen: Create your own altcoin

unless these altcoins have a striking technologic improvement or very strong backers they will ultimately go to (close to) 0. Being smaller, they will be less liquid, less popular and less common as a means of payment than Bitcoin, just useless.

That seems to be the consensus here, but I'm not convinced.

For example, if JPM creates their 'reported' bitcoin clone I think they could probably wipe bitcoin's 'network effect' advantage out rather easily.

those dinosaurs? They will get DDOS attacked so hard when they try.

They will probably try to bring a coin backed by silver. Something Kennedy wanted to do so long ago.

by not making it tradable in an exchange and treat it for what it is, "poker money" accepted by top 5 poker sites.

you saying this is impossible to do with all your flying cars arguement?