[Help!!!]Start up a new gateway in South Asia

[Fred]

Hi There,

Greetings, I am the technical director that worked for several financial institutions in South Asia, and recently is seeking for the potential cooperation with Ripple network. When I sent emails to the partners@ripple.com but get no response at all. I thought maybe the email was swamped and I have to posted a topic here to get help.

I assume that to become a trusted gateway requires some approval from Ripple then you will be allowed to integrate into the Ripple Ledger. Is that correct or I can integrate into the RCL directly according to the official dev materials on the website? I am a block-chain tech fans so that I am quite interested at the ripple network, also I can leverage my existing liquidity to support the gateway, and believe it would be a success.

Thanks in advance if anyone can help. Also feel free to email me at ********

 

thanks,

Fred

[Guest]

Just making a shout out to some who might be able to help....  @nikb @karlos @Hodor@TiffanyHayden

[Guest]

Also... I should have added... welcome.... good luck with your enterprise...  

 

[maverick]

Hi Fred,

 

Why not setup a decentralized exchange and list some currencies with order books all XRP/XXX.  What are the money transmitter laws in your jurisdiction?  Do you already have all licenses + money transmitter licenses?  If not have you started the application process?

[tulo]

Hi, it's weird they didn't answer for a possible collaboration.

BTW once you have all the licenses and regulations done you can interface to RCL yourself. None is controlling you, since it's a public and open ledger. Gateways don't need any approval from Ripple, but they can help you on the technical side.

[Mercury]

Hello @Fed!

I removed the email address for yours and everyone's safety.

As to your question, no. You don't need Ripple's permission. The ripple consensus is open sources and anyone can run a gateway. Even 'vanilla' address can issue IOUs on the network (I have).

THAT being said, as @tulo mentioned, Ripple can help with integration and technical questions. There is also a difference between everyone could vs. should. Legality is a major concern for users (regulations, crypto rules/ perception in host country, data privacy, etc.). Reputation is another challenge, getting and acquiring users to trust your gateway isn't always easy. Also gateways have to offer something to their users, most often its access to local payment networks, local KYC verification and support.

Good luck!

[Fred]

Appreciate for all the replies. The good news is that i would be allowed to integrate into the Ripple Gateway without any permission from Ripple.

Yes, we do have the license to do the biz. We have a lot of existing customer needs right now so I am not worry about the initial liquidity and reputations.

Actually, I talked to several gateways about the total cost to settle an international payment for a specific currency pair but they could not clarify this for sure because it may depends of the XRP price fluctuation, and they claimed that the FX rate may not be as good as the market, which means the total cost might be higher than traditional bank payment. Is this the truth? Because the cost and settlement speed pros is the critical reason that my institution choose to use Ripple. If this is not reliable, how can we proceed to move forward? Any comments?

@nikb @karlos @Hodor @TiffanyHayden @tulo @Mercury @maverick

 

[tulo]

31 minutes ago, Fred said:

and they claimed that the FX rate may not be as good as the market, which means the total cost might be higher than traditional bank payment. Is this the truth? Because the cost and settlement speed pros is the critical reason that my institution choose to use Ripple.

It depends a lot on the application, the goal, etc...you can have many type of Gateways offering different services and with different business models.

[Graine]

3 hours ago, Fred said:

and they claimed that the FX rate may not be as good as the market,

True. That's why you should invest into making markets yourself until your users start filling the orderbook or reach tentative agreements with other gateways in your remittance corridor. I would suggest asking @Nicolas as he is the one running FlashFX which does exactly what you want at a better aud/eur than retail.

P.S. To tag someone you need to choose their name from drop-down menu that appears after "@" like this @Fred

I am very surprised Ripple didn't respond to you. Perhaps they are focused on big fish exclusively

[Fred]

17 hours ago, tulo said:

It depends a lot on the application, the goal, etc...you can have many type of Gateways offering different services and with different business models.

Thanks, Tulo. Could you explain more about the biz models since the primary concern of my customers would be the cost and settlement speed, that's why we turn to Ripple. Maybe Stellar has the better liquidity? or any other solutions?

Edited September 2, 2017 by Fred

[Guest]

4 minutes ago, Fred said:

Thanks, Graine. Could you explain more about the biz models since the primary concern of my customers would be the cost and settlement speed, that's why we turn to Ripple. Maybe Stellar has the better liquidity? or any other solutions?

Seriously you need to contact Ripple.  Maybe they are flat out right now but keep trying....  there is absolutely nothing in the financial space that can beat Ripple as a cross border payment solution.  @nikb or someone might be able to put you in touch with the right people.

[Fred]

Thanks. Why there is no Ripple employee here? I keep trying to send emails to partners@ripple.com and support@ripple.com, even with different emails address... no response at all...

Sorry, one more question is that do I need to partner with other gateways(maybe for a specific currency, just like set up trustlines between gateway and users' accounts), I thought that would be freely exchanged every where through XRP as a bridge currency without worrying that gateway A need to be authorized to gateway B to remit your money from B. 

[Fred]

Actually I am a technical guy and I go through the whole document from Ripple website and the feeling is Ripple is turning to Fintech Solution Providers for the banks. 

That means Ripple design two levels of network, one is for banks, while the other is for the decentralized P2P with a lot of gateways, exchanges and single traders/users around the world. As I say, the cost of cross-board payment of the P2P network is unstable which depends on a lot of factors like XRP fluctuation, liquidity status, and etc. However, the bank network is totally different, even maybe the two levels share the same Ledger(I am not sure),  the XRP would be fixed prices inside of the bank network, which reflects as a real bridge currency.

In this case, obviously, the service from bank will be better than the one from gateway, will continuely beat the gateway and win the market share. Then finally the bank network will win.

Any disagreement comments?

[Nicolas]

On 02/09/2017 at 8:44 PM, Fred said:

Actually I am a technical guy and I go through the whole document from Ripple website and the feeling is Ripple is turning to Fintech Solution Providers for the banks. 

That means Ripple design two levels of network, one is for banks, while the other is for the decentralized P2P with a lot of gateways, exchanges and single traders/users around the world. As I say, the cost of cross-board payment of the P2P network is unstable which depends on a lot of factors like XRP fluctuation, liquidity status, and etc. However, the bank network is totally different, even maybe the two levels share the same Ledger(I am not sure),  the XRP would be fixed prices inside of the bank network, which reflects as a real bridge currency.

In this case, obviously, the service from bank will be better than the one from gateway, will continuely beat the gateway and win the market share. Then finally the bank network will win.

Any disagreement comments?

@Fred  Feel free to reach out to me and we can discuss offline. I might be able to shed some light to your questions... maybe send me a message to support@flash-fx.com.au