Newbie still hung up on "activation" concept

[GuyGreg]

Hi,

I followed the steps in the tutorial below to create a keypair with the "XRPChat Desktop Wallet".  I have not deposited anything.

I don't plan to need to transfer between cryptocurrency and fiat currency often, so was hoping to skip the step of opening an account like a bank where you have to send in a bunch of documentation.  One more account I don't plan to use again, at least not for a long time.

A guy I know has been using Bitcoin for years and has an account on Poloniex.  He suggested if I wanted, I could Paypal him some dollars, and he'd move some of his Bitcoin on Poloniex to Ripple and send them to me.

I just want to be sure that any kind of incoming deposit will work, without the account being "activated".  I can just generate a new keypair with the "XRPChat Desktop Wallet, hand out the public address, and anyone anywhere can send me funds?  How long should I expect to wait between when he initiates a send action on Poloniex and when the funds show up on my desktop?

I am thinking it might be better to create an account on Poloniex (which I expect I will need, as BTC are still the most used for buying and selling goods online) and have it just be a transfer between Poloniex accounts. I don't know Poloniex either, can you do that (transfer funds directly between Poloniex accounts not held by the same person)?  This would prevent a technical explanation if the funds don't show up (he can't as easily not send the money, and say "you must have done something wrong on your end.")

Thanks for reading!

Guy

 

[MDH]

@shivamgupta Go to an exchange and buy some like the rest of us  50XRP is still 10 bucks. If u use the desktop wallet you can activate with 20 XRP

 

[MDH]

@GuyGreg I would say send your friend some money and let him send you bitcoin in your poloniex wallet. When having bitcoin in your poloniex wallet just exhange it for some ripple and then transfer it all to a cold wallet and HODL

[robertbruce]

i wouldn't be worried about gettin' it in, plenty around to help if you can trust them, but good luck getting your coin out, it will look like you are laundering if you all of a suddenly turn up with a moon trip...you should "prolly create that account you don't think you'll need, it'll come in handy when the regulators come-a-calling

[GuyGreg]

Yes, I think I will have him send me the BTC to the Poloniex account instead of my wallet.  Thank you.

I may also try using a Bitcoin ATM, just to understand how that works.  Anyone ever used one of those?  Do I need to have a mobile wallet on my phone, or is any BTC account good enough?

Is there an XRP ATM anywhere in the world?  Will there be?  The only currencies I can find taken are Bitcoin and Litecoin.

Robert, that does bring up something I hadn't thought about.  How WOULD I go about getting money back into fiat if my crypto holdings become worth far more than I paid?

[robertbruce]

20 minutes ago, GuyGreg said:

Yes, I think I will have him send me the BTC to the Poloniex account instead of my wallet.  Thank you.

I may also try using a Bitcoin ATM, just to understand how that works.  Anyone ever used one of those?  Do I need to have a mobile wallet on my phone, or is any BTC account good enough?

Is there an XRP ATM anywhere in the world?  Will there be?  The only currencies I can find taken are Bitcoin and Litecoin.

Robert, that does bring up something I hadn't thought about.  How WOULD I go about getting money back into fiat if my crypto holdings become worth far more than I paid?

GG, probably by the time your moon-shot rocket is loaded on the take-off ramp your country will be regulated, if it already isn't. There would be two ways to cash your coin. Trust someone to cash it for you, or port it back through your brokers account.

I can see you just want to take little steps, that's ok, just cover yourself once you start getting to the top of the staircase. There would be nothing worse than slipping back down the stairwell for the sake of a simple account.

[Guest]

If Ripple goes like we hope then your local bank will be able to transfer your funds from a Ripple account directly into your bank account in fiat.

its slightly harder now only because it's early days.  

[GuyGreg]

Alright, so my buddy sent some BTC to my exchange account in return for the Paypal money I sent him.

Now I have traded my BTC for XRP.  Since I plan to keep that XRP for a long time, I want to send it to my desktop wallet, which remember has never been "activated".

In addition to my wallet's address, the exchange is asking me for a tag.  My understanding is that tag is just an additional identifier for when one address is used for more than one individual.  Since my address represents my wallet, I could leave the tag blank, or enter any value, it wouldn't matter.  Is that right?

I just want to be sure the money is going to show up in my wallet!

[Guest]

Removed dup post

Edited September 21, 2017 by Guest
Remove dup

[Guest]

If the destination wallet is a Ripple wallet that you own then you can either leave dest tag blank or if the site insists on a value put a zero. 

Note:   Always test first with a token amount.  Eg 30 XRP

[GuyGreg]

16 minutes ago, Tinyaccount said:

 

Note:   Always test first with a token amount.  Eg 30 XRP

OK, will do.

[GuyGreg]

OK, my 30XRP came through in a few minutes.  Not bad.

1. So, is my "account" now activated, without me having to do anything else?
2. It never occurred to me before, but the XRPChat Wallet is giving me the impression I can hold other currencies in it as well, right?  Would the destination address be the same if I want to send some BTC from my exchange account to myself at home?
3. There is an Add Trust Line button.  Wikipedia says:  "Trustlines and rippling:  Users must ‘extend trust’ to the Ripple gateway that holds their deposit. This manual creation of a trustline indicates to the Ripple network that the user is comfortable with the gateway’s counterparty risk. Furthermore, the user must put a quantitative limit on this trust and create a similar limit for each currency on deposit at that gateway."  Is my 30 XRP on my computer or at a Ripple Gateway?  How would I set up Trustlines and how would I benefit from them?
4. In the Trade section of the Wallet, it looks like I can sell my XRP for BTC, USD and JPY.  Who are the other parties to these trades?  This implies that I can have fiat currencies in my wallet; I didn't know that was possible.  Is there a manual for the XRPChat Wallet software?
5. Maybe this is related, but if you look at the Wikipedia article for Ripple, almost all of it is devoted to Ripple as an exchange protocol--the XRP currency is almost a footnote.  Is the exchange protocol pretty much just used by banks at this point?  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ripple_(payment_protocol)

Sorry if this isn't the best place to ask these questions, they're just all coming to me.  If anyone can post a link(s) so I can figure this stuff out, that would be great.  This is more complex than I thought going in.