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That's a matter of adoption. These things move very slowly. If you look at the adoption of debit cards, it looks similar. They were first released in the 1960s,

That's a matter of adoption. These things move very slowly. If you look at the adoption of debit cards, it looks similar. They were first released in the 1960s, and most retailers fought against them and said they would never accept them. A few years ago there were valid technical reasons for why crypto is not being adopted by retailers in the form of slow transactions throughput and high fees. Nobody wants to wait a minute and spend $10 for their transaction to go through. These technical reasons no longer exist. L2s are extremely fast, secured by L1, and fees are small. And with the upcoming sharding upgrade Ethereum is going to be even more efficient. From a technical perspective, you could now accept USDT (or any other token) and have verification be about as fast as most card payments, with lower fees. But all of these are relatively recent developments (~1-2 years), and it will likely take a few years before all this technology trickles down into real-world adoption.

threeseed 4y ago
The reason retailers don't like crypto is because: a) It is too volatile. b) Consumers are not demanding it. Not sure what the magical solution to either is that hasn't been tried before.
- loveparade 4y ago
  1) Volatility is relative. USD Stablecoins are not volatile compared to the US dollar. It's the same. In other countries, the fiat currency is much more volatile than ETH or BTC. Like I mentioned above, 5+ years ago there was a push for retailers to adopt this stuff, but at the point stablecoins were not around, or unusable due to slow transactions or high fees. That's no longer the case. 2) True, I think the negative image and bad UX of retail crypto is a big reason of why retailers have not adopted it. I'm not sure this will continue forever though. 3) I would add that taxes are another reason retailers are vary of adopting crypto. Depending on the country, dealing with crypto taxes is a pain, and not worth the effort. The magical solution? It's time, competition, and the free market. If crypto is truly cheaper and easier to deal with, startups will push it onto retailers to replace credit card incumbents. But these things don't happen overnight.
- junofan 4y ago
  It’s a no-brainer for low margin stuff like gas and groceries. That’s why credit cards offer 10x points or whatever on that kinda stuff. Could totally see e.g. Costco moving off Visa.

threeseed 4y ago

The reason retailers don't like crypto is because: a) It is too volatile. b) Consumers are not demanding it. Not sure what the magical solution to either is that hasn't been tried before.

loveparade 4y ago
1) Volatility is relative. USD Stablecoins are not volatile compared to the US dollar. It's the same. In other countries, the fiat currency is much more volatile than ETH or BTC. Like I mentioned above, 5+ years ago there was a push for retailers to adopt this stuff, but at the point stablecoins were not around, or unusable due to slow transactions or high fees. That's no longer the case. 2) True, I think the negative image and bad UX of retail crypto is a big reason of why retailers have not adopted it. I'm not sure this will continue forever though. 3) I would add that taxes are another reason retailers are vary of adopting crypto. Depending on the country, dealing with crypto taxes is a pain, and not worth the effort. The magical solution? It's time, competition, and the free market. If crypto is truly cheaper and easier to deal with, startups will push it onto retailers to replace credit card incumbents. But these things don't happen overnight.
junofan 4y ago
It’s a no-brainer for low margin stuff like gas and groceries. That’s why credit cards offer 10x points or whatever on that kinda stuff. Could totally see e.g. Costco moving off Visa.