Comment by hardwaresofton | Hacker News Reader

Comment by hardwaresofton | Hacker News Reader

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I get the desire to avoid cryptocurrency in general but as a technology it is a good fit (quite possibly the only fit, I'm not sure what other decentralized payment systems are out there) for what they want to achieve.

There has been discussion on whether they accept other forms of payment[0] (probably lots and lots of times), and supposedly they'll take PRs. Maybe someone should write an external payment API that really just acts like a dummy "blockchain" and works off of human verifications (along with some sort of trust score).

That, or someone could theoretically create a blockchain that did nothing but validate payments on other platforms (I have no idea how it would work but it seems possible), so a payment on the imaginary blockchain would equal a confirmed payment on some payment platform with sufficient API support.

[EDIT]- found another thread[1]

[0]: https://www.reddit.com/r/OpenBazaar/comments/2lddjy/besides_...

[1]: https://www.reddit.com/r/OpenBazaar/comments/531vui/openbaza...

Or you could rip all of this BS out and just integrate with existing, non-decentralized payment processors, and avoid alienating all non-technical users in the process.

Do you know why OpenBazaar chose to support cryptocurrency?

There's a lot of information already here [1], but I might add it'd be easier to create a Bitcoin wallet for each user than to open a PayPal or Stripe account for each.

[1] https://openbazaar.org/features/

Im pretty sick of websites asking for my home address, phone number, and (most importantly) my email address.

This is easily one of my favorite parts about Bitcoin. Scan the address and you are done.

This is an orthogonal concern. The only one of those necessary for US CC processing is Zip code, and only some of the time, which the CC processor will tell you when and you could handle as call-and-response. The other stuff can also be dropped from most CC-processing stores, they just don't want to because they like having that information just incase they need to ship something, or definitely in case they get marketing ideas to send you.

Most cryptocurrency is easier to use than a credit card. You scan a QR code and click "confirm" to pay. So that "non-technical" criticism is a red herring.

That's like saying driving a car is simpler than walking because you don't have to put on shoes.

I disagree with this. The process for 99% of people to use a credit card is "reach in your wallet, hand a card over or type in the number". The process for 99% of people to use crypto is "read on wikipedia on what cryptocurrency is, ask someone how to use it, get a lengthy lecture about how distributed currency is the future", and then they're still not anywhere close to using crypto.

I find crypto currency identical in difficulty as using foreign currency.

Once you convert Fiat to crypto, its easier to spend than using a debit/credit card.

Getting it from Fiat to crypto is the hard part. After that you literally scan a QR code or type in an email.

Its my preferred way of paying because I always have my phone but I dont always keep my wallet in my pocket. I dont need to add my address and birth date. I just send money.

Also, to clarify, I'm not a fan of alt coins(at the moment) only Bitcoin I believe is useful. Between coinbase Email, Shift card, and the usual on-chain txns, Ive basically made the change to Bitcoin lifestyle.

> I find crypto currency identical in difficulty as using foreign currency.

The vast majority of people would find it burdensome to convert their money to another currency, and then use that on a normal basis. Of course if you ignore the hardest part, it's "easy".

He never said easy, he said as hard, which is true.

The problem is always wherever the other party supports your payment methods. You can literally pay by holding a smart watch over a supporting terminal. the same with online shops and Google wallet, Amazon pay or whatever

There are so many options at this point that I never get why anyone makes this about crypto currency. Most of these options are older and more widespread than Bitcoin as well.

I find it more difficult to use Canadian dollars than US dollars in the United states, to the point that I have never used Canadian dollars in my daily life, and I would speculate that 99% of people would have the same experience.

You've either missed the obvious or willfully ignored the fact that to use crytpo, you must first have it. This is what makes it untenable for the majority of people.

> Most cryptocurrency is easier to use than a credit card.

It is until it isn't.

- Got screwed by a vendor and want to issue a chargeback? Nope. Can't do it.

- Sent to the wrong address because of a typo? Sorry for your loss!

- Got your wallet emptied by a malicious program running on your computer? Sorry for your loss.

- Too many people using the crypto, resulting in confirmations taking forever and/or costing a ton? Too bad, so sad!

- Fiat price of crypto swung widly before / after transaction resulting in your purchase costing far more / less than expected? Should have hodl'd buster!

- Want to convert all that BTC into fifthly dirty fiat? Better find an exchange that actually pays out in USD and not tether. Also better hope that said exchange actually has the money and isn't insolvent.

etc...

Or, build in integrated `crypto <--> $$` exchange.

There's no point in doing that, because if you can do that you can do $$ <--> $$

Most payment processors are highly mutable by US politics.

In what way?

Julian Assange is one good example. The recent Iranian attempt to withdraw 350 million from a German bank is another.

So the thing is Bitcoin isn't bullshit. The technology and the papers are solid -- it's the application and the resulting hypetrain and what it spawned that you're railing against (from what I can tell, please let me know if I'm wrong).

Bitcoin does not have 0 use cases, it has ~1 that's extremely rare in practice, so much so that it's usually not worth using bitcoin. But it does have a usecase. Something something spherical cows.

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