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> Can you really imagine how this would work IRL? Yes. This is basically the exact user experience of the Starbucks app, and it's a fine experience. You pre-p

> Can you really imagine how this would work IRL? Yes. This is basically the exact user experience of the Starbucks app, and it's a fine experience. You pre-pay an amount, have a balance open, transactions reduce that balance, and you occasionally need to reload your balance with another credit card transaction. Which is to say I don't think this is an intractable problem if there is good software with good user experiences to help out. All that said, I'm not current on the block-size vs SegWit debate, so my analogy could be flawed.

simias 9y ago
But Starbucks is the perfect use case for this Lightning scenario, it's a frequent purchase for a relatively small amount. Basically anywhere where a "voucher" system like this starbucks app exists lightning could probably fit with minor disturbance. Now take amazon, take that small shop on the street where you go twice a year because it's super expensive but it's also opened very late, take your car mechanic, take that guy on ebay you're buying a pair of socks from, take that restaurant in Berlin during your vacation where you'll probably never go back. Will you be willing to "pledge" 10 times the amount while buying there? And if not won't the fee be dissuasive? What's in it for me? And won't that create negative side effects for competition? For instance if a new coffee shop opens next to Starbucks with your system I have an incentive to keep going to Starbucks since it already has an open channel (exactly what the Starbucks app is about, except I'm paying for it, not Starbucks), so effectively it makes it harder for newcomers to compete. Same thing for, say, amazon vs. some random ebay seller. The more popular a shop, the more likely it'll be to have an open channel pending. Isn't that going against the "completely decentralized currency" ethos? What good is it that the currency is decentralized if I can effectively only use it with a limited number of companies? It would be pretty amusing to me to see the cyberpunk libertarian cryptocurrency turn into a glorified Costco membership.

simias 9y ago

But Starbucks is the perfect use case for this Lightning scenario, it's a frequent purchase for a relatively small amount. Basically anywhere where a "voucher" system like this starbucks app exists lightning could probably fit with minor disturbance. Now take amazon, take that small shop on the street where you go twice a year because it's super expensive but it's also opened very late, take your car mechanic, take that guy on ebay you're buying a pair of socks from, take that restaurant in Berlin during your vacation where you'll probably never go back. Will you be willing to "pledge" 10 times the amount while buying there? And if not won't the fee be dissuasive? What's in it for me? And won't that create negative side effects for competition? For instance if a new coffee shop opens next to Starbucks with your system I have an incentive to keep going to Starbucks since it already has an open channel (exactly what the Starbucks app is about, except I'm paying for it, not Starbucks), so effectively it makes it harder for newcomers to compete. Same thing for, say, amazon vs. some random ebay seller. The more popular a shop, the more likely it'll be to have an open channel pending. Isn't that going against the "completely decentralized currency" ethos? What good is it that the currency is decentralized if I can effectively only use it with a limited number of companies? It would be pretty amusing to me to see the cyberpunk libertarian cryptocurrency turn into a glorified Costco membership.