Yep, great tip, I can now see 'Bid' & 'Ask' prices, which gives the value of my XRP's? And how do I convert them into something I can transfer to my bank.

Some step, by step instructions would be much appreciated...

Thanks in advance.

Thanks Falconet, yep it helps. I can put a PC together in about 10-15 minutes, but all this virtual currency stuff is new and alien to me.

Many thanks, I'll try it...

Small to start.

Ripple needs to get XRPs distributed in order to establish them as a viable currency. Technically, the Ripple transaction system only needs to use XRPs internally but XRPs are the way you drive people to use that system.

The problem I think the WCG giveaway was intended to address is getting XRPs into as many hands as possible to encourage their use in commerce. Except it really hasn't worked out that way. The number of people who are active members of the Ripple team is down from 14 or 15k to only about 10k (when I checked last week). That compares to 75-76k of active WCG members.

So while this giveaway route has probably improved XRP distribution, it hasn't been nearly as successful as one might have anticipated. There's also the probable fact that most people are simply hoarding XRPs, given how stable the XRP exchange rate has been.

So if the breadth of the distribution, meaning the number of people receiving XRPs is the main concern for Ripple Labs rather than just dumping all 50B of them, then it probably doesn't matter to them if there's a huge increase in points.

If they keep the payout rate the way it is, then people who don't have the GPU computing power to keep up will be inclined to just drop out, further lowering the number of people receiving XRPs. If they increase the payout rate then you get a further concentration of XRPs in the hands of fewer people. So either way it doesn't matter to them.

Although my guess is that they would probably opt to increase the payout rate rather than lose even more 'miners.'

MJ: That's always going to be a problem as long as there's competition involved. Personally, I think Ripple Labs is struggling with the problem of how best to get XRPs out into the wild. Using a distributed computing project rather than whatever sporadic giveaways they were doing previously was a great idea, just not a perfect one. But to be honest, I'm not sure it's possible to do much better.

It's too easy to 'game' the system with other types of giveaways so really the only choice they have is to require some sort of work be performed in exchange for XRPs. Except even that can be gamed by using more or specialized hardware as has been the case with mining most cryptocoins. Unfortunately, at present it seems to be the lesser of the various evils.

I do however think it would be much fairer to allocate XRPs based on computing hours rather than points, but there's probably a downside to that as well.

You also have to consider the fact that even the average computer user doesn't know much about alternative currencies and certainly doesn't have much interest in mining them. I certainly didn't even with all of the news bitcoin has been making lately.

So you only have a few options in that case. One is to try to co-opt (but in a good way) existing users who you know have a certain level of tech savviness. A distributed computing project is an excellent hunting ground from that perspective. But it's definitely not ideal if you want a wide and relatively even distribution.

There are of course other options, but they require the participation of intermediate parties like banks or merchants. That leaves open the possibility of their profiting in the process. That's not necessarily a bad thing if it achieves the goals you want. It also helps get those intermediaries to become invested in the Ripple system. But for whatever reasons, RL hasn't chosen to that route.

As I posted elsewhere, crunchers falling by the wayside has been happening since the launch of WCG and long before Ripple appeared on the scene. A casual look at the Global stats shows only ~16% of 649,000 users have stayed long enough to crunch 1 years RunTime.

twilyth suggests the possibilty of allocating XRPs based on computing hours rather than points. SekeRob's post and chart showing WCG hourly project credits highlights the current instablity of the Points/Credit system (particularly CEP2).
uplinger Jan 20 2014:

In the meantime anyone specifically crunching to obtains XRPs is better off giving CEP2 a wide berth.