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If TCP/IP would have been able to capture a billionth of a cent for every request Cryptocurrencies haven't been able to do micropayments, this kind of system j

If TCP/IP would have been able to capture a billionth of a cent for every request Cryptocurrencies haven't been able to do micropayments, this kind of system just isn't possible. Proponents will go on about payment channels such as lightning, but these have been 'just around the corner' for several years now and their effectiveness/practicality is highly debatable.

AgentME 9y ago
>but these have been 'just around the corner' for several years now That's because it took the Bitcoin community several years to agree to activate SegWit, which is required for the lightning network to work. SegWit is finally locked in and will be activated on August 23.
mhluongo 9y ago
The important point isn't the micropayments, it's providing some sort of funding channel for an important piece of infrastructure that otherwise languishes.
- rtpg 9y ago
  but the micropayments point still stands. In practice the model proposed for TCP/IP would not work because it's a decentralized crypto-currency. In which case you're talking about consumables that have a high enough unit cost to "pay the price" of a single crypto txn. Turns out we have this already! It's called bitcoin. Maybe you don't want to change your prices all the time so a new coin could be good on that end (letting markets manage the service cost). But that's just mental gymnastic, especially since ultimately everyone is pooling from fiat for a while (who's getting their salary in BTC or ETH?)
  - hossbeast 9y ago
    If you work for Coinbase, you can collect your salary in BTC
    - rtpg 9y ago
      Can you negotiate that your salary be denominated in BTC though? So that even if the value of BTC goes up you get the same BTC in the account every month?
      - repomies6999 9y ago
        I think it never works like that, pricing is done in other currencies. Also in webshops that accept btc as payment the prices are never in btc.
  - mhluongo 9y ago
    If you use a token for the protocol, and the value goes up, and the developers have token holdings- they've made money. No micropayments necessary to use tokens to fund development. Also, plenty of companies in the space pay salaries in BTC and ETH. Check out BitWage for a provider.
Taek 9y ago
The Sia network has been happily doing micropayments (covering 4mb of storage at a time) for over a year. At times, the total number of micropayments on the network has been estimated to eclipse 100 transactions per second (all off-chain via payment channels). This technology is deployed if you know where to look for it.
- Geee 9y ago
  I didn't know about this important feature in Sia. I'd appreciate if you expanded on this somewhere; in your blog or documentation.

AgentME 9y ago

>but these have been 'just around the corner' for several years now That's because it took the Bitcoin community several years to agree to activate SegWit, which is required for the lightning network to work. SegWit is finally locked in and will be activated on August 23.

mhluongo 9y ago

The important point isn't the micropayments, it's providing some sort of funding channel for an important piece of infrastructure that otherwise languishes.

rtpg 9y ago
but the micropayments point still stands. In practice the model proposed for TCP/IP would not work because it's a decentralized crypto-currency. In which case you're talking about consumables that have a high enough unit cost to "pay the price" of a single crypto txn. Turns out we have this already! It's called bitcoin. Maybe you don't want to change your prices all the time so a new coin could be good on that end (letting markets manage the service cost). But that's just mental gymnastic, especially since ultimately everyone is pooling from fiat for a while (who's getting their salary in BTC or ETH?)
- hossbeast 9y ago
  If you work for Coinbase, you can collect your salary in BTC
  - rtpg 9y ago
    Can you negotiate that your salary be denominated in BTC though? So that even if the value of BTC goes up you get the same BTC in the account every month?
    - repomies6999 9y ago
      I think it never works like that, pricing is done in other currencies. Also in webshops that accept btc as payment the prices are never in btc.
- mhluongo 9y ago
  If you use a token for the protocol, and the value goes up, and the developers have token holdings- they've made money. No micropayments necessary to use tokens to fund development. Also, plenty of companies in the space pay salaries in BTC and ETH. Check out BitWage for a provider.

Taek 9y ago

The Sia network has been happily doing micropayments (covering 4mb of storage at a time) for over a year. At times, the total number of micropayments on the network has been estimated to eclipse 100 transactions per second (all off-chain via payment channels). This technology is deployed if you know where to look for it.

Geee 9y ago
I didn't know about this important feature in Sia. I'd appreciate if you expanded on this somewhere; in your blog or documentation.