Hello ChiaFourm! Can you relate to @codinghorror and I for whom discovering Bram & Chia has forced you to change your historical stance that all this crypto craziness is no longer just some huge digital ponzi-scheme designed to deceive the uninformed masses?? Well if so — you’ve come to the right thread!! @dchuk asked me to do a little write up on COIN SWAPS.
So you’re ready to accept the HIGH risk nature of crypto trading?*
*Disclosure: not a professional investor, this not investment advice
COIN SWAPS 101
Prerequisites (if in the USA): you’re going to need at least two KYC’d accounts on different exchanges. KYC is a silly banking term: Know Your Customer. It’s one of many government oversight regulations designed to combat all the financial evils and ills in the centralized banking system. To you and I it just means PAIN IN THE A** intrusion of my privacy, but I digress. This often means it takes 24-48 hours to setup new accounts and start using them effectively. You’ve been so warned.
For our example transaction we’re going to be converting USD (US Dollars) → XCH (Chia)
STEP 1
Exchange USD (US dollars), ie money in a checking account or on a debit card for BTC. I’ve found Gemini and Square Cash to offer the best trade-offs and “lowest” fee’s but be aware everyone wants a piece 
STEP 2
BUY LTC with BTC, this is the “secret sauce” to all my coin swaps. LTC, if you’re unfamiliar, was a hard fork (developer talk for based-on) BTC’s code-base and then tweaked and optimized for different goals.
The Litecoin blockchain is capable of handling higher transaction volume than its counterpart - Bitcoin. Due to more frequent block generation, the network supports more transactions without a need to modify the software in the future. https://litecoin.org
LTC enables movement at very low fees and even 3 confirmations take less than 20 minutes
A confirmation means that there is consensus on the network that the bitcoin transferred is a valid transaction and has been included in one block on the Bitcoin blockchain. The block with the transaction will be buried under every block after it. Each of the subsequent blocks is another confirmation. 3 confirmations from the Bitcoin network take approximately 30 min to 2 hours, but this can vary. When receiving a bitcoin transaction, every user is free to determine at what point they consider a transaction confirmed. Coinfloor chooses 3 confirmations for the safety of our users’ funds. https://coinfloor.co.uk
STEP 3
Fair warning: this is where things get confusing and complicated quickly!! Withdraw LTC to 2nd exchange that has the “pairs” you require for the next step. By “pairs” I mean when you see BTC → LTC , LTC → BTC, ETH → BTC, etc.
We’re going to “withdraw” our LTC to our Gate.io account in order to purchase XCH. For the purposes of this 101 I’m not going to get into address formats
LTC wallet examples (both are valid but different formats)
Starting with M: MR5Hu9zXPX3o9QuYNJGft1VMpRP418QDfW
Starting with l: ltc1qum864wd9nwsc0u9ytkctz6wzrw6g7zdn08yddf
Then from your Gate.io account go to Wallet → Deposit and copy your LTC address.
Return to your Gemini account and go to Transfer → Withdraw from Gemini, Select LTC and PASTE your LTC address. DO NOT try to write this out freehand, you’ll bungle it and lose your coin / monies forever.
STEP 4
Patiently wait for the 3 network confirmations. If this is your first time, you’ll be an anxious mess at this stage until you see the monies magically appear in the new account after ~10-20 minutes, you can ease your stress by looking up your Gate.io wallet address on the LTC blockchain explorer here: Litecoin Block Explorer | BlockCypher (if it shows there, your good, disaster avoided)
STEP 5
The transaction safely confirmed you can now start “swapping” for the “pairs” you require. We need to “swap” LTC → USDT (not going to cover stable coins here either) in order to “swap” USDT → XCH, ya dig??
STEP 6
“swap” USDT → XCH, and PROFIT!!! YOU’VE DONE IT, you’re now a coin swapping ninja like the pros. Congrats, here’s a cookie 
If you’ve made it this far, thanks for hanging in there. Crypto is a crazy ride and this is just one step in the journey. God bless and God speed fellow Chiaites!!
DISCLAIMER: This guide is for educational purposes. Following anything in this guide is done at your own risk. It is your responsibility to ensure anything you do is legal in your country and place of residence.
sure!