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Micropayments are something we’ve had available to us forever, there’s no reason a custodial wallet like PayPal can’t offer them - or couldn't have offered them

Micropayments are something we’ve had available to us forever, there’s no reason a custodial wallet like PayPal can’t offer them - or couldn't have offered them at any point in the last two decades. People don’t want them. And they certainly don’t want them at up to $60 a pop haha. Or over LN which still requires an on chain transaction to open a channel. Nick Szabo has a great write up that outlines my thoughts exactly [1] [1] https://nakamotoinstitute.org/static/docs/micropayments-and-mental-transaction-costs.pdf https://nakamotoinstitute.org/static/docs/micropayments-and-...

maccolgan 5y ago
The reason that people typically don't accept tips in anything but crypto is that it would eliminate the pseudonymity that crypto would offer...
- cwkoss 5y ago
  Also accepting tips via CC exposes you to chargebacks, were people can actually financially damage you (ex. they donate and chargeback, they get their money back, you get nothing + a ~$20 chargeback fee)
  - panarky 5y ago
    Also credit cards are an extraordinarily expensive way to send fifty cents. Stripe charges 2.9% plus 30 cents per successful transaction. So your fee on a fifty cent micropayment would be 63%. The lightning network would be free or perhaps one sat, which would be 0.08% of a fifty cent transaction.
thinkmassive 5y ago
Nobody used micropayments when they were a hassle. Today there are already Lightning-based apps breaking down that barrier, live in production using mainnet BTC. Spinx[0] and Zion[1] are chat apps that offer room hosts the option to set a fee for joining and/or sending messages to a channel, for the purpose of spam reduction. Another cool feature already live in the app is pay-per-minute streaming of podcasts and videos. [0]: https://sphinx.chat/ https://sphinx.chat/ [1]: https://www.getzion.com/ https://www.getzion.com/

maccolgan 5y ago

The reason that people typically don't accept tips in anything but crypto is that it would eliminate the pseudonymity that crypto would offer...

cwkoss 5y ago
Also accepting tips via CC exposes you to chargebacks, were people can actually financially damage you (ex. they donate and chargeback, they get their money back, you get nothing + a ~$20 chargeback fee)
- panarky 5y ago
  Also credit cards are an extraordinarily expensive way to send fifty cents. Stripe charges 2.9% plus 30 cents per successful transaction. So your fee on a fifty cent micropayment would be 63%. The lightning network would be free or perhaps one sat, which would be 0.08% of a fifty cent transaction.

thinkmassive 5y ago

Nobody used micropayments when they were a hassle. Today there are already Lightning-based apps breaking down that barrier, live in production using mainnet BTC. Spinx[0] and Zion[1] are chat apps that offer room hosts the option to set a fee for joining and/or sending messages to a channel, for the purpose of spam reduction. Another cool feature already live in the app is pay-per-minute streaming of podcasts and videos. [0]: https://sphinx.chat/ https://sphinx.chat/ [1]: https://www.getzion.com/ https://www.getzion.com/