1. Localbitcoins: meet up with someone and buy BTC or know someone wanting to sell BTC. exchange to XRP on Changelly, Shapeshift.io or similar service. If you ultimately buy a significant amount of XRP, invest in a Trezor or Ledger Nano S device. These devices safely store the major cryptocurrencies. At the least, store on the XRP wallet (never downloaded it but assume it exists) as a "paper wallet" (Google that one). 2. Local bitcoin ATM: download the Mycellium wallet on your smart phone. Once you get the BTC, you send from the Mycellium wallet to Changelly, an exchange or whatever. *you will be paying fees of up to 15%. 3. Pay cash for a mining rig. Mine the most profitable coin and convert to XRP using Changelly, etc. 4. You can sign up for Coinbase, link bank accounts and play by their rules. You won't be paying cash though. 5. My knowledge on XRP is low versus other coins. I only recently traded it as a pure trade. I still have a few left with a cost basis of nothing. Who knows? Maybe it flies. But I thought there was a way of directly buying it but maybe not. It was founded by people with deep established banking ties. Here is a link I just Googled: https://ripple.com/xrp-portal/how-to-buy-xrp/ 6. If I were you, I would get your wife to work out a deal with someone in Russia. My guess is it is easier to buy there. Could be wrong though. Good luck.
You can buy Ripple on Kraken with fiat. Not shilling for Kraken, but there's a reason they are my primary exchange.
Are you in the US or Europe? Do you mean XRPUSD or paying with cash dollars? 7.) Almost forgot. You can also buy with cash on WallOfCoins if you are US. It seems like sometimes there is a markup and sometimes there is not. I have never used them. One more thing: my opinion, Kraken is pretty good for buy and hold (or hodl). It is run by a known American in America. From my experience, in volatile times you will not be able to get filled using a limit order and you may only get filled if you enter an order waaay under the market price (in a falling market). P.S.S. If you have a bunch of ETH and want to store it on Nano S with a Myetherwallet and run into difficulties, let me know.
Thanks for the great info. I use Coinbase and will open up Kraken now. Any thoughts on the viability of bitcoin ATM?
My local one works fine. No problem. I buy small amounts (under $500) and buying altcoins. I haven't "invested" in bitcoin in a couple of years. So I have been doing research/ thinking of buying and installing one. It's a fine line with money transmitter laws. A lot depends on the state. I think they could be tremendously profitable in a good location.
Panicked a little w/Ripple this morning (considered getting out yesterday) but seemed like it bounced back by end of day. Looks like the momentum has fizzled out so considering exiting. Bummer is Kraken only lets me get bitcoins in turn which saw a decent rally today. Most alt coins saw a downturn today......what have all your experiences been w/momentum plateauing? Time to get out?
Where are u located, Mint? Would like to see one of these machines, not sure if there are any in USA yet.
I will probably go to a bitcoin ATM tomorrow. I will post a video on ET in the next 48 hours. https://coinatmradar.com/ In theory, you could supply the BTC by opening a Coinbase commercial account (probably the least reliable option), arb from another ATM or supply from someone trusted abroad. https://bitcoinatm.com/ https://www.generalbytes.com/
@m1nt I'm North America based, but yeah you can long XRP/EUR or XRP/USD. About the bitcoin ATM me and a couple of buddies looked into it in 2013(I know I know), and very seriously again recently. Things that came to mind is that it's not a set and forget deal like a regular ATM. People just aren't smart enough to figure it out and those that can, know they can get BTC off an exchange. So you'd have to rent a location and put a physical human(you) at the locale to step them through the process. You can inflate profit margins by a decent amount vs the market rate, but the ultimate determinant is customer demand. But part of the value add is setting people up with a wallet and etc, perhaps having an intro to crypto course, all incremental revenue streams. You are essentially building a brand. At least that's how the local market here is.