4 ms·

The "perfect fit for making digital payments while preventing exposure to crypto volatility" is ummm ... fiat with Visa/Mastercard? Which is exactly why no cry

by __d 5y ago

The "perfect fit for making digital payments while preventing exposure to crypto volatility" is ummm ... fiat with Visa/Mastercard? Which is exactly why no cryptocurrency has gained mainstream traction: it's solving a "problem" that doesn't exist for most people, and doing so in a way that introduces new problems.

smabie 5y ago
traditional payment processors wield undo influence and control over businesses: just look at the past onlyfans drama. Moving away from a duopoly that censors legal businesses it doesn't like is definitely valuable, and also something a stable coin could facilitate. Moving money around onchain is orders of magnitudes easier than using the tradfi systems. Most crypto firms (trading firms, VCs, protocols, etc) are exclusively using crypto to invest in deals, pay employees, etc. It really is so much better. And I say this as someone who works in crypto for purely practical purposes (ie making money) and does not buy into the idea of crypto utopia.
- Daishiman 5y ago
  And yet you can't buy anything with crypto, as evidenced by an entire thread full of solutions that either, a) nobody uses, b) are terribly difficult to implement as a layman, or c) are possibly vehicles for fraud. As a guy who had no fear compiling Gentoo kernels 15 years ago, saying you can actually use BTC to pay for things is about a feasible as saying that 2005 was the year of the Linux desktop.
  - new_guy 5y ago
    Sample size of one but I just bought my new phone with crypto.
  - smabie 5y ago
    This isn't actually true, there are many ways to buy stuff with crypto.
    - Daishiman 5y ago
      This is about as useful as saying in 2005 that you could play games on Linux.
      - smabie 5y ago
        I have coworkers that don't have bank accounts and just have FTX debit cards. Is that good enough?
- lottin 5y ago
  Using bitcoin as currency makes no economic sense. In the same way that using a foreign currency in your own country makes no economic sense. That's because using any other currency other that the local currency incurs transaction costs (not to be confused with transaction fees) that could be avoided by using the local currency. So people who use bitcoin as currency tend to do it for ideological reasons or to prove that it can be done. There's nothing practical or economically advantageous about it.
anonymoushn 5y ago
Maybe merchants don't want to pay 5% or whatever
- PeterisP 5y ago
  The customers get to make the choice, not the merchants. You can offer a 5% discount for purchases in your favorite stablecoin, but outside of a few specific niches, most customers will actually prefer CC payments instead of the discount.

by __d 5y ago

smabie 5y ago

traditional payment processors wield undo influence and control over businesses: just look at the past onlyfans drama. Moving away from a duopoly that censors legal businesses it doesn't like is definitely valuable, and also something a stable coin could facilitate. Moving money around onchain is orders of magnitudes easier than using the tradfi systems. Most crypto firms (trading firms, VCs, protocols, etc) are exclusively using crypto to invest in deals, pay employees, etc. It really is so much better. And I say this as someone who works in crypto for purely practical purposes (ie making money) and does not buy into the idea of crypto utopia.

Daishiman 5y ago
And yet you can't buy anything with crypto, as evidenced by an entire thread full of solutions that either, a) nobody uses, b) are terribly difficult to implement as a layman, or c) are possibly vehicles for fraud. As a guy who had no fear compiling Gentoo kernels 15 years ago, saying you can actually use BTC to pay for things is about a feasible as saying that 2005 was the year of the Linux desktop.
- new_guy 5y ago
  Sample size of one but I just bought my new phone with crypto.
- smabie 5y ago
  This isn't actually true, there are many ways to buy stuff with crypto.
  - Daishiman 5y ago
    This is about as useful as saying in 2005 that you could play games on Linux.
    - smabie 5y ago
      I have coworkers that don't have bank accounts and just have FTX debit cards. Is that good enough?
lottin 5y ago
Using bitcoin as currency makes no economic sense. In the same way that using a foreign currency in your own country makes no economic sense. That's because using any other currency other that the local currency incurs transaction costs (not to be confused with transaction fees) that could be avoided by using the local currency. So people who use bitcoin as currency tend to do it for ideological reasons or to prove that it can be done. There's nothing practical or economically advantageous about it.

anonymoushn 5y ago

Maybe merchants don't want to pay 5% or whatever

PeterisP 5y ago
The customers get to make the choice, not the merchants. You can offer a 5% discount for purchases in your favorite stablecoin, but outside of a few specific niches, most customers will actually prefer CC payments instead of the discount.