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One thing that hit me recently on bitcoin is I realized that for the first time in history micropayments are 100% possible. I'm thinking all kinds of startups

One thing that hit me recently on bitcoin is I realized that for the first time in history micropayments are 100% possible. I'm thinking all kinds of startups should spring up from that, but I haven't thought of any yet. What are your thoughts?

wmf 14y ago
Bitcoin micropayments are possible if you can solve the UX issues (copying and pasting addresses, etc.) and if you can avoid "recommended" transaction fees that are currently near 5 US cents.
- tocomment 14y ago
  I don't get the recommended transaction fee thing. What happens if someone pays 1 cent? Will no one process it?
  - waterlesscloud 14y ago
    You can even send transactions with no fee at all, but they tend to be prioritized rather low. So far, every transaction get processed. Eventually. I've seen some no-fee transactions take several hours recently. But there's also currently some issues with the overall load of transactions, due to a gambling site spamming tiny "dust" transactions as part of its system. That's caused there to be a lot more transactions, which means sometimes you'll have to wait a number of blocks for a no-fee transaction to process. A block is supposed to happen an average of every 10 minutes, but it's not deterministic and there's a variance. It can take an hour or more for the next block to come up, in rare cases.
    - wmf 14y ago
      People accepting micropayments tend not to wait for any confirmations, so the lag may or may not matter. But if the network gets to a point where zero-fee transactions never get confirmed then there may be a problem.
  - jacoblyles 14y ago
    Not much. I saw a graph recently of fee paid to confirmation time. There was no correlation. Eventually it will matter when mining dries up. There will need to be "transaction exchanges". Personally, I am designing a coin that never mines out, because I believe it to be a superior design.
    - BrokenPipe 14y ago
      an inflating currency ? Why would I ever get into it if my government wasn't to force me like they did in the states before it was backed by gold ?
  - VMG 14y ago
    More detail: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=104939.msg1148889#msg1148889 https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=104939.msg1148889#ms...
- tocomment 14y ago
  I don't see why the UX issues have to be a deal breaker. If nothing else it's a micro payment system for early adaptors for now.
- BrokenPipe 14y ago
  fees are being adjusted as we speak (at least the default) but you should know that the fee is optional
pilgrim689 14y ago
yep, people are already doing micropayments on reddit. See http://www.reddit.com/r/bitcointip http://www.reddit.com/r/bitcointip and http://www.reddit.com/r/bitcoin http://www.reddit.com/r/bitcoin. Basically, you can do "tip $0.50" on reddit and a bot will parse your comment and process the transaction.
- BrokenPipe 14y ago
  it's amazing. I got tipped a few month ago something like $2 and it is now $6.
- tocomment 14y ago
  On that's cool. Could we implement one like that for hacker news?
  - nwh 14y ago
    I wrote a bot for HN a few months ago, but canned the idea fairly early on. If people were willing to put up with a slightly spammy bot, it wouldn't take much to modify my backend to do something similar. I'm genuinely not sure how it would be received in this community. It would certainly be something to put past the moderators first.
    - tocomment 14y ago
      I think it's worth a try. It wouldn't hurt to ask to rin it on a trial basis right?
      - nwh 14y ago
        The main issue is that without private messaging, there needs to be an external interface. It suddenly makes the whole thing a lot less pretty.

wmf 14y ago

Bitcoin micropayments are possible if you can solve the UX issues (copying and pasting addresses, etc.) and if you can avoid "recommended" transaction fees that are currently near 5 US cents.

tocomment 14y ago
I don't get the recommended transaction fee thing. What happens if someone pays 1 cent? Will no one process it?
- waterlesscloud 14y ago
  You can even send transactions with no fee at all, but they tend to be prioritized rather low. So far, every transaction get processed. Eventually. I've seen some no-fee transactions take several hours recently. But there's also currently some issues with the overall load of transactions, due to a gambling site spamming tiny "dust" transactions as part of its system. That's caused there to be a lot more transactions, which means sometimes you'll have to wait a number of blocks for a no-fee transaction to process. A block is supposed to happen an average of every 10 minutes, but it's not deterministic and there's a variance. It can take an hour or more for the next block to come up, in rare cases.
  - wmf 14y ago
    People accepting micropayments tend not to wait for any confirmations, so the lag may or may not matter. But if the network gets to a point where zero-fee transactions never get confirmed then there may be a problem.
- jacoblyles 14y ago
  Not much. I saw a graph recently of fee paid to confirmation time. There was no correlation. Eventually it will matter when mining dries up. There will need to be "transaction exchanges". Personally, I am designing a coin that never mines out, because I believe it to be a superior design.
  - BrokenPipe 14y ago
    an inflating currency ? Why would I ever get into it if my government wasn't to force me like they did in the states before it was backed by gold ?
- VMG 14y ago
  More detail: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=104939.msg1148889#msg1148889 https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=104939.msg1148889#ms...
tocomment 14y ago
I don't see why the UX issues have to be a deal breaker. If nothing else it's a micro payment system for early adaptors for now.
BrokenPipe 14y ago
fees are being adjusted as we speak (at least the default) but you should know that the fee is optional

pilgrim689 14y ago

yep, people are already doing micropayments on reddit. See http://www.reddit.com/r/bitcointip http://www.reddit.com/r/bitcointip and http://www.reddit.com/r/bitcoin http://www.reddit.com/r/bitcoin. Basically, you can do "tip $0.50" on reddit and a bot will parse your comment and process the transaction.

BrokenPipe 14y ago
it's amazing. I got tipped a few month ago something like $2 and it is now $6.
tocomment 14y ago
On that's cool. Could we implement one like that for hacker news?
- nwh 14y ago
  I wrote a bot for HN a few months ago, but canned the idea fairly early on. If people were willing to put up with a slightly spammy bot, it wouldn't take much to modify my backend to do something similar. I'm genuinely not sure how it would be received in this community. It would certainly be something to put past the moderators first.
  - tocomment 14y ago
    I think it's worth a try. It wouldn't hurt to ask to rin it on a trial basis right?
    - nwh 14y ago
      The main issue is that without private messaging, there needs to be an external interface. It suddenly makes the whole thing a lot less pretty.