<p>Nothing ever happens in Ripple unless some transaction initiates it. Precisely matching orders are permitted under some circumstances to provide enhanced liquidity. The primary purpose of order books in Ripple is to provide liquidity for payments. Having matching offers on the books permits payments in either direction with zero spread.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-07-15T07:14:02.800Z
why would there be a non zero size if there was no order on the buy or sell side? and if there are indeed buy/sell orders at same or better prices they need to fill
Medicine
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-04-15T16:09:06.177Z
@Medicine If one person is willing to convert nickels to dimes at 2:1 and another person (or even the very same person) is willing to convert dimes to nickels at 1:2, why should they exchange with each other and just eliminate the service they're both trying to provide? That would defeat the entire purpose of both offers -- to provide liquidity or to provide equivalency. Some people make offers to provide a service.
David Schwartz
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-07-05T07:38:00.360Z
2013-07-05T07:38:00.360Z
David Schwartz
<blockquote>
  <p>Bids Sum BTC Size BTC Bid Price XRP
  30.58995660   30.58995660 6,000.00000000</p>
  
  <p>Asks Ask Price XRP    Size BTC Bid Price XRP
  6,000.00  29.07743420 29.07743420</p>
</blockquote>

<p>while bids and asks match above, why the orders not getting filled? The above are top entries on each side of order book for btc/xrp since last 10 minutes in the ripple client.</p>

<ripple><ripple-gateways><ripple-client>
why ripple currency exchange trading is slow sometimes?
Medicine
# why ripple currency exchange trading is slow sometimes?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2013-07-03)

> Bids Sum BTC Size BTC Bid Price XRP
> 30.58995660 30.58995660 6,000.00000000
>
> Asks Ask Price XRP Size BTC Bid Price XRP
> 6,000.00 29.07743420 29.07743420

while bids and asks match above, why the orders not getting filled? The above are top entries on each side of order book for btc/xrp since last 10 minutes in the ripple client.

**Tags:** ripple, ripple-gateways, ripple-client


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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2013-07-05. Score: 1

Nothing ever happens in Ripple unless some transaction initiates it. Precisely matching orders are permitted under some circumstances to provide enhanced liquidity. The primary purpose of order books in Ripple is to provide liquidity for payments. Having matching offers on the books permits payments in either direction with zero spread.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: why would there be a non zero size if there was no order on the buy or sell side? and if there are indeed buy/sell orders at same or better prices they need to fill  
> **username_1**: @username_0 If one person is willing to convert nickels to dimes at 2:1 and another person (or even the very same person) is willing to convert dimes to nickels at 1:2, why should they exchange with each other and just eliminate the service they're both trying to provide? That would defeat the entire purpose of both offers -- to provide liquidity or to provide equivalency. Some people make offers to provide a service.  

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