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Disclaimer: I was an early investor, and still "hodl" crypto, so I'm not without my bias. Dating a viable use case versus other tech depends on when you set the

Disclaimer: I was an early investor, and still "hodl" crypto, so I'm not without my bias. Dating a viable use case versus other tech depends on when you set the creation date. The internet wasn't commercially viable for its first 25 years. Also we are getting closer and closer to a viable use case for the most basic use case for crypto, payments. Solana Pay and a few others have working products, the problem is network effects keeping them from being useful. If we can reach a future where I can buy groceries without paying 2% to Visa, but instead can pay a fraction of a penny to a validator, potentially putting hundreds of dollars back in average peoples pocket per year, I think it's worth trying.

majewsky 4y ago
What's the business incentive for a validator to charge that much lower costs? If they know they have the cheapest offering on the market already, it doesn't make business sense to undercut Visa by that much (or, at most, to only undercut them until they've achieved monopoly).
- arbol 4y ago
  The price comes from the number of Validators offering their service. If there are many then the price goes down and vice versa. This is just basic economics. The current offering of VISA, Mastercard, etc. is somewhat limited and there is a barrier to entry. Therefore, artificially high costs can be maintained.
cuteboy19 4y ago
>If we can reach a future where I can buy groceries without paying 2% to Visa We already are living in this future in India. If I want to pay for a 10₹ ($0.13) chai I simply scan the QR in my favourite payments app and enter my UPI pin. The money is transferred to their bank instantly and it is completely free! UPI is so ubiquitous that even most shops in villages have it by now. Ironically UPI is far more decentralised because while Solana completely goes down every few months, the UPI network has never entirely gone down.
bagacrap 4y ago
huh? visa pays me 2%, not the other way around. I don't pay 2% more when I use my cc instead of cash, rather, I receive rewards. You could claim that the grocery store has to increase prices due to the fees that visa charges them, but I think you'd be wrong: visa provides a service that is cheaper than the store handling cash (security, transportation, slower transactions etc). Visa also provides a service to me, which is that if someone steals my card and buys groceries, I can get my money back. No crypto system will ever support that.
- arbol 4y ago
  > if someone steals my card and buys groceries, I can get my money back. No crypto system will ever support that. Why not? If it's been implemented by VISA then it can be implemented elsewhere. Your essentially talking about insurance and risk management, both of which can be done on-chain.
  - bagacrap 4y ago
    Because it requires a central authority to arbitrate disputes.

majewsky 4y ago

What's the business incentive for a validator to charge that much lower costs? If they know they have the cheapest offering on the market already, it doesn't make business sense to undercut Visa by that much (or, at most, to only undercut them until they've achieved monopoly).

arbol 4y ago
The price comes from the number of Validators offering their service. If there are many then the price goes down and vice versa. This is just basic economics. The current offering of VISA, Mastercard, etc. is somewhat limited and there is a barrier to entry. Therefore, artificially high costs can be maintained.

cuteboy19 4y ago

>If we can reach a future where I can buy groceries without paying 2% to Visa We already are living in this future in India. If I want to pay for a 10₹ ($0.13) chai I simply scan the QR in my favourite payments app and enter my UPI pin. The money is transferred to their bank instantly and it is completely free! UPI is so ubiquitous that even most shops in villages have it by now. Ironically UPI is far more decentralised because while Solana completely goes down every few months, the UPI network has never entirely gone down.

bagacrap 4y ago

huh? visa pays me 2%, not the other way around. I don't pay 2% more when I use my cc instead of cash, rather, I receive rewards. You could claim that the grocery store has to increase prices due to the fees that visa charges them, but I think you'd be wrong: visa provides a service that is cheaper than the store handling cash (security, transportation, slower transactions etc). Visa also provides a service to me, which is that if someone steals my card and buys groceries, I can get my money back. No crypto system will ever support that.

arbol 4y ago
> if someone steals my card and buys groceries, I can get my money back. No crypto system will ever support that. Why not? If it's been implemented by VISA then it can be implemented elsewhere. Your essentially talking about insurance and risk management, both of which can be done on-chain.
- bagacrap 4y ago
  Because it requires a central authority to arbitrate disputes.