See How can you buy XRP with BTC if you don't have any XRP?
Currently, there's no way to open an account with direct access to XRP. Could the ripple protocol be modified to include a way to open an account with BTC instead of XRP? The BTC would be exchange to XRP in the distributed exchange using the best available exchange rate.
The problem is that you need an account to hold BTC in the Ripple network. There is no known practical way to allow Bitcoins to transact directly on another network without a central authority to hold the keys that release the Bitcoins on the Bitcoin blockchain.
Hopefully, this should only be an issue for a short period of time. Once billions of XRP have been given away, there shouldn't be any significant difficulty in getting enough XRP to open an account.
Update: The gateway protocol could be used to do this, allowing you to do your initial account funding right from a Bitcoin account.
