My first cryptocurrency transaction

Crypto Currency: My first transaction (last week) was receiving 100 Euros in Ripple (XRP).

It was quick, less than one minute from end to end, maybe just a few seconds.

Today the amount is 131,88 Euro (Ʀ380.000000).

The transfer was initiated using a smart phone, I presume it was one using android. These days many applications are cross platform compatible: available for both operating systems, Apple and Android. The sender needed my; XRP address (34 digits) and Destination Tag.

There is a fee in the 1/1000 of a percent of a single XRP area. It is marginal. In the past for me to transfer 100 USD from Germany to my US bank account, it cost 75 Marks and took a couple days. This was in the 90s when I was sending Marks to my US Checking account to pay a loan. There was also a need to actually physically go to the German bank. When the money was in my checking account, I could send a check to the loan institution in the USA.

The transfer of Ripple XRP using the cryptocurrency exchange was so fast, I forgot to check the time. It was finished in seconds. My account is with Kraken. The sender’s account is not known to me. But there was an issue last Wednesday with the Bitcoin currency not being traded by a top trading site, Binance (after they were hacked).

One needs to be on top of their money and using any exchange of digital money, or virtual currency trading platforms has its hazards. And even conventional internet banking has its faults and downtime. Both platforms, cryptocurrency exchanges and conventional internet banking, require a minimal of due diligence from the user.

Now that I have about 131 Euros worth of the XRP crypto currency in my Kraken cryptocurrency exchange account, how can I put that into my bank? Moreover, how to cash in receiving tangible paper? Well perhaps it is not that easy to answer. I will not try now, and latter perhaps this will be addressed by me in another article.

About my first cryptocurrency experience

My first experience with the receiving the r380.000000 at the time of the exchange into my cryptocurrency account was good. This was the 8th of May at 12:32 GMT+1.

The sending party needed my;

• XRP address (34 digits)
• Destination Tag.

Just as receiving 100 Euro in cash, I was happy. Learning the web application for the exchange is intriguing and exciting. The crypto currencies available, the exchanges, and the press about crypto currency is interesting. This is a new world and a new dimension that hard currency and traditional money products do not have. I was never a big trader, in fact, I am not well educated in financial markets. Just seeing the funds in my new Kraken account was a big pleasure for me.

The idea for this article was to compare 2 Crypto currencies: the amount of time and cost to transfer the funds. The Bitcoin was not transferred into my account as it was in a trading freeze by Binance at the time when the XRP transfer was made. That is an example of what can happen. Ripple XRP crypto currency was available to be traded but not Bitcoin. And so the exchange, Kraken was the target account. My account. The cost was so small for processing the order that it is minimal and the speed was so fast, I cannot give you the amount of seconds it took. I am impressed.

I wanted two types of currency to compare. In the future I will perhaps try another type. The Bitcoin has risen almost double from about 4000 Euros to about 80000 per unit in less than a week. Perhaps that’s why it was not being traded last Wednesday: perhaps there was too large a load, or peak in the movement of Bitcoin, I read that Bitcoin has many problems with speed and costs to transact. The problem is perhaps converting the Bitcoin into paper money, or actually use it to purchase goods and services. Perhaps it is the same with Ripple xrp?

The Banks use SWIFT to transfer money into accounts, it is slow and costly. My bank is reliable and easily used from my account to pay my bills and purchase goods online. It also is quick when exchanging funds between my accounts within the same bank as the case with my wife and myself. I will continue to use this as it is safer and fast enough. It takes 2 minutes for the transaction to be realized: the money is transferred from my wife’s bank account to mine.

The Bank though can take 3 days to process an exchange or transfer when the account of one party is not in the same bank. And the cost to have my bank account is about 4 Euros per month, plus the initial cost of the bank card / PIN card.

The crypto currencies use their own Blockchain, that is used in Bitcoin, XRP and others. It is a unified accounting of the transaction that is perhaps comparable with PDF file format. Both are meant to transfer data allowing the sender assurance that the data is unified (usable by many following a recognized convention or protocol), and secure (cannot be changed, though actually Bitcoin can be changed according to their programmers).

Blockchain is needed by popular banks to use this technology to sending money out of the country in place of traditional means. This is what people do that work in foreign countries: they send money home. If I can send money using the crypto currency exchange, it will save time and money. As it is, I do not see much cash anymore. I do my banking at home via the bank using the internet. The login is also a MFA, Multi Factor Authorization. They use a card, and a card reader that generates a code. There is an option to use the bank’s app on your smart phone to log into your account. It all seems secure and assuring that they use more than one protocol to verify the user.

The MFA, Multi-Factor Authentication, is available at Kraken. I installed the Google Authenticator which has the look and feel of other authorization applications, or apps for the smart phone. Some other MFAs products are RSA, PingID, DigID, Vodafone Mobile@Work, and Authenticator from Microsoft. Microsoft has an Azure Information Protection App, AIP Viewer. There is a is a wide selection. It is common for companies to use these apps. They work in various ways on Mobile phones or computers. It is a major importance also to have encryption. And some of these products do that also. Gemalto is another company using MFA and encryption. It has been around perhaps longer than most others in this market of MFA.

To be in control of my banking, trading, and my electronic identity; I need to be attentive to my passwords and authentication protocols. These days, global companies accept that they will be attracted by hackers: the recovery is important. Perhaps I need the same attitude. Although; hackers are not per se looking at me. In the event that they are, I need a recovery plan! It is good if there is no attack on my data, but if I trade on the internet, who knows. What can I do to protect my passwords, IDs, and other metadata when on the internet. For now though I am pleased with Ripple and Kraken.

Greg D – 14th May 2019

Relevant news