5 ms·

I pay zero fees tho. And centralised Vs decentralized doesn't really affect my use, it's just an implementation detail.

beeflet 2y ago
The vendors you spend at have to pay for credit card processing fees. That cuts into the margin for the business and ultimately the consumer pays for that, whether they recognize it or not. Issues like surveillance and insecurity are largely political and by the time they are realized on an individual level they are too late to solve. It is pretty easy track down protestors when the government has access to the network of all their transactions. Not to mention control: payment processors are private companies and can simply choose not to do business with you, locking you out of the market. With a typical bank, your money is protected by "open source" information like your name, address, and such. If you can copy information from a credit card you have everything you need to authorize a transaction: skimming is a major issue. When this security inevitably breaks down, it's called "identity theft" and the responsibility is pushed onto the consumer who has no agency to secure themselves. In a cryptocurrency, it's a keypair so the information needed to authorize the transaction (private key) is separate from the information needed to verify it (public key). And the end user has ownership of the keypair so they can take initiative in their own security. If they want to use a certain hardware token, they can do that. If they want to outsource some security to a third party, they can do that voluntarily with a multi-signature scheme.
- jxjnskkzxxhx 2y ago
  Isn't that a problem for the vendors though? In lots of corners of capitalism you gave two parties fighting over who pays what. And that's a good thing.
  - beeflet 2y ago
    Yes, it is a problem for vendors. Vendors will need to increase their prices to cover their costs, which by proxy is a problem for the consumer. > In lots of corners of capitalism you gave two parties fighting over who pays what. And that's a good thing. Yes, the goal of cryptocurrency is to fight against rent-seeking payment infrastructure in this manner.
    - jxjnskkzxxhx 2y ago
      > Yes, the goal of cryptocurrency is to fight against rent-seeking payment infrastructure in this manner. Another failure of crypto.

The vendors you spend at have to pay for credit card processing fees. That cuts into the margin for the business and ultimately the consumer pays for that, whether they recognize it or not. Issues like surveillance and insecurity are largely political and by the time they are realized on an individual level they are too late to solve. It is pretty easy track down protestors when the government has access to the network of all their transactions. Not to mention control: payment processors are private companies and can simply choose not to do business with you, locking you out of the market. With a typical bank, your money is protected by "open source" information like your name, address, and such. If you can copy information from a credit card you have everything you need to authorize a transaction: skimming is a major issue. When this security inevitably breaks down, it's called "identity theft" and the responsibility is pushed onto the consumer who has no agency to secure themselves. In a cryptocurrency, it's a keypair so the information needed to authorize the transaction (private key) is separate from the information needed to verify it (public key). And the end user has ownership of the keypair so they can take initiative in their own security. If they want to use a certain hardware token, they can do that. If they want to outsource some security to a third party, they can do that voluntarily with a multi-signature scheme.

jxjnskkzxxhx 2y ago
Isn't that a problem for the vendors though? In lots of corners of capitalism you gave two parties fighting over who pays what. And that's a good thing.
- beeflet 2y ago
  Yes, it is a problem for vendors. Vendors will need to increase their prices to cover their costs, which by proxy is a problem for the consumer. > In lots of corners of capitalism you gave two parties fighting over who pays what. And that's a good thing. Yes, the goal of cryptocurrency is to fight against rent-seeking payment infrastructure in this manner.
  - jxjnskkzxxhx 2y ago
    > Yes, the goal of cryptocurrency is to fight against rent-seeking payment infrastructure in this manner. Another failure of crypto.