Beginners Guide: XRP First Steps

[Mercury]

Part of the new Community Beginners Guide series.

Other guides currently in the series:

Beginners Guide: Into. Quick overview of the series and purpose of the guides

Beginners Guide: Creating a Cold Wallet. A simple step by step instructions into creating a secure cold wallet.

Beginners Guide: Desktop Wallet Step by step instructions in downloading and installing XRP CHAT WALLET, the creation and activation of new wallet and the first few steps to becoming a ripple user.

Beginners Guide: What is a wallet? How do my coins get stored? How does cryptocurrency work anyway? This post goes over what a wallet is, what the common different types of wallets are and their differences, and how wallets can be used at a basic level.

Disclaimer: This post features the first few steps in getting started with XRP. Ripple, the ripple protocol, Gateways and other advanced features are not addressed in this guide. Services or links to services/ businesses are not endorsements of those services and are for informational purposes only. This guide is offered ‘as is’ and accepts no responsibility for any damage or losses incurred etc.

Difficulty level: LOW

 

XRP is the native currency of ripple and only exists within the network. Users need a ripple wallet to hold their individual XRP balances and other assets issued on the ripple network. Every wallet needs a small amount to activate and to link/ trust Gateways.

This guide aims to help you in acquiring and taking your first XRP steps.

Step 1. OPEN A WALLET

First you need to choose a wallet. There are a few options, each offering different features.

1.      Cold Wallet. This option is ideal for people looking for a secure storage, normally of high value amounts. A guide to a sample set-up can be found here.

2.      Hosted Wallet/ Service. This is the simplest option; the provider takes care of all technical requirements (fees may apply). An example of this wallet type is Gatehub. Simply go to https://signin.gatehub.net/signup and follow the instructions. A side benefit is that these providers often auto fund your ripple wallet.

Note: Trusted and regulated services comply with their local regulatory authorities and often require Know Your Clients (KYC) verification; this can add DELAYS TO INSTANT WALLET SETUP.

3.      Plain Wallet. Similar to a cold wallet, plain wallets can be obtained by just generating ripple key pairs. As this can require more technical knowledge it will not be addressed in this guide, but more information can be found throughout the forum.

Ripple wallets have two addresses, a public and secret key.

A public key will look similar to rJR7gjNe3DpJ7kpB4CHBxjDKfwVMpTKPpj. Public keys always start with “r”.  The public key can be shared or monitored on the ripple network and you can have funds sent to this wallet via this address from any other ripple wallet.

A secret key will look like this sJR7gjNe3DpJ7kpB4CHBxjDKfwVMpTKPpj. Secret Keys will always start with “s”. The secret key is how you prove ownership over a wallet and gives withdraw rights. DO NOT SHARE. Also be sure to store in a secure place, if lost all funds stored on the wallet will also be lost.

 

Step 2. FUND YOUR NEW WALLET/ BUY XRP

If you used a hosted wallet/ service there is a good chance that your wallet is already activated. If you created a ripple wallet by other means you will still need to activate it with a small amount of XRP, the suggested amount is 30-50 XRP.

If you are planning on acquiring more than the suggested amount of XRP the activation amount can/ will be deducted from your first deposit (although it is advised that you do the steps separately to ensure you have the correct address).

• You could ask generous members on this forum to help activate (be polite!). Due to abuse this forum no longer supports member- to- member activation.
• Buy XRP through an exchange or Gateway. Some sample Gateways are Bitstamp, Gatehub and Kraken. Individual steps on how to complete purchases though these gateways can be found on this Ripple page and on their individual websites. A list of other exchanges and Gateways can be found under the Links & Resources tab of the forum .
• Use a third party tool such as Bithomp (illustration on the left), these tools may use Paypal or other means to allow the purchase of small XRP amounts.

Note: Ripple Charts (illustration on right) a service hosted by Ripple, shows updated market prices. Exchanges and Gateways may have different prices, including possible fees, but the charts should give you an idea of current XRP prices vs. many assets including national fiat, BTC, ETH, gold and more.

Step 3. SEND YOU FIRST XRP

This may vary depending on your wallet choice, but sending is easy. Just include the recipient ripple wallets public address (double check you have the correct public address) into the correct field and hit send. Some wallets may have QR codes that you can scan to simplify the process.

Sample: Using Gatehub wallet (see illustrations below)

1. Select wallet

2. Select send

3.This will open a new window

4. Enter recipients public key

5. Enter amount to send

6. Confirm

 

 

Step 4. REPEAT

 

[Guest]

This is a good idea, but it might be useful to add the following:

1: video tutorial for each exchange or wallet type.

2: a separate website to host say, RippleTutorials.org

[Mercury]

This is a good idea, but it might be useful to add the following:
1: video tutorial for each exchange or wallet type.
2: a separate website to host say, RippleTutorials.org

If and when there is enough content perhaps it could be spun off as its own support website. At this point its more beneficial to put the information where the people are/go and the forum setup allows ease of crowd editing and updating. As for videos and instructions on everything- if I had the time I would consider it.

[Guest]

Oh sorry, I did not know you were the author!

i can understand.

I do not recall right now but there are 'those' sites, that provide documentation content. Not sure what they are right now, but they might be useful given the content is small. It might be free. This sort of site would help Ripple if it followed 'standard' Ripple user experience guidelines. I expect Ripple would not do this themselves, as it could be seen to be endorsing specific exchanges. Exchanges would welcome this, however. 

You might ask Ripple to 'support' in some way this endeavour.

[Guest]

@karlos Could you add this to "Links & Resources?"

[Enmascarado]

Thanks for the information. I have a question about the wallets. As I start with baby steps, I´m guessing I can start my first wallet being a Hosted Wallet, and as I continue learning and playing with the technicalities, eventually I can move my XRTs into a Cold Wallet, correct? Or do I have to make a decision on one or the other from the get go?  To be honest, I´ve read enough about XRT to know I´ll be buying for the long haul... I have no plans to buy and sell; I´m not a day trader. So Cold Wallet sounds attractive but just to get me started quickly, doing a Hosted Wallet seems more convenient as long as I can eventually move my XRT funds into a Cold Wallet.

[Turandot]

So basically if I want to buy XRP on gatehub and store them on my paper wallet I need to fund my USD gateway and then I need to exchange USD to XRP and then make a payment from Gatehubs hosted wallet to my generated (https://ripply.eu/coldwallet.html) Paper wallet ?

Or I can somehow send XRP from gateHub straight to my paper wallet ?

Is it safe btw to generate public/private keys straight of the website ? 

 

Thanx

 

 

[Guest]

On ‎29‎/‎05‎/‎2017 at 3:39 AM, Enmascarado said:

Thanks for the information. I have a question about the wallets. As I start with baby steps, I´m guessing I can start my first wallet being a Hosted Wallet, and as I continue learning and playing with the technicalities, eventually I can move my XRTs into a Cold Wallet, correct? Or do I have to make a decision on one or the other from the get go?  To be honest, I´ve read enough about XRT to know I´ll be buying for the long haul... I have no plans to buy and sell; I´m not a day trader. So Cold Wallet sounds attractive but just to get me started quickly, doing a Hosted Wallet seems more convenient as long as I can eventually move my XRT funds into a Cold Wallet.

I'm new and don't know much... but I think I can answer this....

You can keep your XRP on a exchange in their wallet for as long as you trust them.  Some exchange issues in other coins etc have meant that its not a good idea to have too much there for too long.  If you are doing just baby steps then online with the exchange is probably ok till you work out your final position.  Just make sure you have 2 factor authentication set up on the exchange.

[Mercury]

20 hours ago, Turandot said:

So basically if I want to buy XRP on gatehub and store them on my paper wallet I need to fund my USD gateway and then I need to exchange USD to XRP and then make a payment from Gatehubs hosted wallet to my generated (https://ripply.eu/coldwallet.html) Paper wallet ?

Or I can somehow send XRP from gateHub straight to my paper wallet ?

Is it safe btw to generate public/private keys straight of the website ? 

 

Thanx

You can send XRP from any address to another. That means you can send XRP direct from Gatehub to your cold wallet (there is a send option, just enter your cold wallets public address).

Some super security conscious users only create new keys offline on a device that has never been connected  to anything online. Depends on your comfort level and the amount of XRP you own.

[Tyripz88]

What is the best way someone from NYC can buy XRP easily without hassle. I'm hearing that certain websites like Kraken for instance do not allow certain states or countries to purchase XRP. Another question would be how much XRP would you suggest having in your wallet to make it big. I've been doing a lot of research on this being a newbie and I do believe something big is going to happen within the next 3-5 years and I just want to be set for life. 

[SHC]

Thank you!

[Trickery]

I'm a newbie too and I've created a cold wallet and sent 20 XRP to it but how do I activate the wallet? I checked the address on bithomp and it said not registered.

[GuyGreg]

The easiest way to get XRP is apparently to buy it with Bitcoin.  You can buy Bitcoin in shops:

https://libertyx.com/

and from ATMs

https://coinatmradar.com

Once you have BTC in a wallet on your phone, you may be able to exchange it directly in the wallet, or use a third party service like Poloniex or Bitfinex (send them the BTC, trade it for XRP there, then withdraw again).

 

[MarkoSS]

For everyone that is new in XRP world, here is awesome article about Ripple, and what are thoughts about investing in Ripple in future.

[Pablo]

Hi - can you please post all links in full wherever possible. It's safer that way. Thanks.