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Similarly, I try to add it to all my side-projects that accept payment. I looked at a few payment providers and settled on OpenNode, as they had the right mix o

Similarly, I try to add it to all my side-projects that accept payment. I looked at a few payment providers and settled on OpenNode, as they had the right mix of an easy API, quick support and good documentation, though I would like it if they supported more cryptocurrencies. If you want cryptocurrencies to succeed, you need to make them widespread as a form of payment. I already lament Steam and Stripe removing Bitcoin support because of the rampant speculating, let's not do more of that.

solotronics 7y ago
btcpay is pretty good too, it's an open source payment processor
- StavrosK 7y ago
  I looked at that too, but 1% for my low volume isn't worth the hassle of running my own processor (which would have been more expensive even before factoring in the hours I took to set it up).
uncletammy 7y ago
> If you want cryptocurrencies to succeed, you need to make them widespread as a form of payment. This! It's unfortunate that the most well known cryptocurrency failed to grasp this and refused to prioritize scaling so that it could accommodate demand. At the end of the day, if a cryptocurrency can't be used like cash, it has nothing to offer over existing solutions.
DagAgren 7y ago
Unfortunately, Bitcoin as designed is technically incapable of being in widespread use for payment, due to a severe lack of network capacity, and a complete lack of interest in ever changing this. Instead, all effort is going into a building a flawed second layer that is theoretically unsound and a usability nightmare.
- repomies691 7y ago
  > Instead, all effort is going into a building a flawed second layer that is theoretically unsound and a usability nightmare. I don't know much about LN and actually I'm quite sceptical about it. However I have tried it now couple of times with different wallets and it seems to work very fluently from user perspective. And saying this as a very old bitcoin user, so I'm used to sending bitcoin payments a lot, LN payments don't seem to differ that much from usability perspective. You scan the QR code/invoice and press send.
  - arcticbull 7y ago
    LN requires an on-chain transaction to open a channel and another to close a channel which means it'll take 70 years to open a channel for everyone on earth and then close it once, assuming the blockchain does nothing else. If an intermediate node loses power all your channel money is locked for over 48 hours. It's also not even Bitcoin and could work just as well with any other cryptocurrency or probably even dollars honestly. Then of course there's the features people actually want like dispute resolution, the ability to charge back, and so on.
    - xorcist 7y ago
      Is the argument here that Lightning, or Bitcoin, is useless because everyone on earth can not use it at the same time? Isn't that moving the goalposts, even a little? Even if only a couple of thousand people could use it, as long as it is useful to them it has a niche. It might not be enough to justify insane valuations, of course, but that's another discussion entirely.
      - mamon 7y ago
        Traditional banking serves pretty much everyone on earth, without running into performance issues, so if Bitcoin is going to replace those banks then yes, it must do the same. And it was Bitcoin fanboys who declared that Bitcoin is here to replace fiat money, so you set that goalpost yourself.
bdcravens 7y ago
We were one of Stripe’s early Bitcoin integration users. I even got a free T-shirt for finding bugs in their documentation. In the years that it was enabled (until Stripe ended support) we never received a single payment in Bitcoin. There’s a large portion of the population who have no compelling reason to use Bitcoin.
- StavrosK 7y ago
  I integrated Stripe early on too, and did get some payments in Bitcoin (out of a few per month total). Eternum.io has had a Bitcoin integration for two weeks and already got two payments in Bitcoin. I think it depends a lot on the audience.
  - bdcravens 7y ago
    Of course. There's a subset of the population that is eager for Bitcoin payments, and if you have a service that either targets those users, or is a service they'd already use, you'll see usage. (Even that's a challenge, with the "hodl" mentality that's prevalent) I think we're still a long way away from general purpose adoption however.

solotronics 7y ago

btcpay is pretty good too, it's an open source payment processor

StavrosK 7y ago
I looked at that too, but 1% for my low volume isn't worth the hassle of running my own processor (which would have been more expensive even before factoring in the hours I took to set it up).

uncletammy 7y ago

> If you want cryptocurrencies to succeed, you need to make them widespread as a form of payment. This! It's unfortunate that the most well known cryptocurrency failed to grasp this and refused to prioritize scaling so that it could accommodate demand. At the end of the day, if a cryptocurrency can't be used like cash, it has nothing to offer over existing solutions.

DagAgren 7y ago

Unfortunately, Bitcoin as designed is technically incapable of being in widespread use for payment, due to a severe lack of network capacity, and a complete lack of interest in ever changing this. Instead, all effort is going into a building a flawed second layer that is theoretically unsound and a usability nightmare.

repomies691 7y ago
> Instead, all effort is going into a building a flawed second layer that is theoretically unsound and a usability nightmare. I don't know much about LN and actually I'm quite sceptical about it. However I have tried it now couple of times with different wallets and it seems to work very fluently from user perspective. And saying this as a very old bitcoin user, so I'm used to sending bitcoin payments a lot, LN payments don't seem to differ that much from usability perspective. You scan the QR code/invoice and press send.
- arcticbull 7y ago
  LN requires an on-chain transaction to open a channel and another to close a channel which means it'll take 70 years to open a channel for everyone on earth and then close it once, assuming the blockchain does nothing else. If an intermediate node loses power all your channel money is locked for over 48 hours. It's also not even Bitcoin and could work just as well with any other cryptocurrency or probably even dollars honestly. Then of course there's the features people actually want like dispute resolution, the ability to charge back, and so on.
  - xorcist 7y ago
    Is the argument here that Lightning, or Bitcoin, is useless because everyone on earth can not use it at the same time? Isn't that moving the goalposts, even a little? Even if only a couple of thousand people could use it, as long as it is useful to them it has a niche. It might not be enough to justify insane valuations, of course, but that's another discussion entirely.
    - mamon 7y ago
      Traditional banking serves pretty much everyone on earth, without running into performance issues, so if Bitcoin is going to replace those banks then yes, it must do the same. And it was Bitcoin fanboys who declared that Bitcoin is here to replace fiat money, so you set that goalpost yourself.

bdcravens 7y ago

We were one of Stripe’s early Bitcoin integration users. I even got a free T-shirt for finding bugs in their documentation. In the years that it was enabled (until Stripe ended support) we never received a single payment in Bitcoin. There’s a large portion of the population who have no compelling reason to use Bitcoin.

StavrosK 7y ago
I integrated Stripe early on too, and did get some payments in Bitcoin (out of a few per month total). Eternum.io has had a Bitcoin integration for two weeks and already got two payments in Bitcoin. I think it depends a lot on the audience.
- bdcravens 7y ago
  Of course. There's a subset of the population that is eager for Bitcoin payments, and if you have a service that either targets those users, or is a service they'd already use, you'll see usage. (Even that's a challenge, with the "hodl" mentality that's prevalent) I think we're still a long way away from general purpose adoption however.