Japanese Can Soon Pay Their Utility Bills with Bitcoin

So yeah, pretty much looks like the bitcoin is already kind of settling layer.

Higher transfer rates, faster resolution. Only do "real" bitcoin transactions a couple times a day between players. Basically how all other high-frequency markets work.

In my view it's very simple: credit is extremely cheap to produce. If a retail merchant is willing to accept Bitcoin credit in exchange for his products, the consumer surely isn't going to insist on paying the higher Blockchain fee, and widespread bitcoin credit will become a thing. And credit (a promise) will always be cheaper than trustless systems (a guarantee), so I don't think the question is "either/or", but "how much do you want to pay per transaction?".

If you're willing to pay ~$0.15 there's no reason to not use the Blockchain right now. If, however, you would like to send bitcoins to someone and pay, say, 1/100th of a cent in fees, the only solution that works right now is credit (issuing digital Bitcoin IOUs in exchange for payment channel payments).

In short: it's extremely important to have cost in mind. Sure, if we could do everything trustlessly at the same cost as using a trusted third party, why not choose trustlessness? But this is not reality. Storing a public key and an IOU in a levelDB database (we don't even need SQL!) is many orders of magnitude cheaper than any trustless solution invented so far. I expect efficiency to improve for trustless solutions, but never enough to beat a trusted third party on cost.

If you're buying a cup of coffee using Bitcoin and paying $0.15 in Blockchain fees, you've spent more in fees than if you used VISA! Is it truly a necessity that we embed your coffee purchase in a global ledger and store it on 10,000 independant nodes spread out across the globe? Or could less suffice in this particular case?

It's also important to point out that an IOU clearing system on top of bitcoin would only introduce merchants to credit risk, not consumers. Consumers send real bitcoins to issuers (transferred trustlessly via payment channels), and get back an IOU with the merchant's public key on it. The consumer receives the product after handing over this IOU to the merchant, and will not (and should not) suffer if the issuer is unable to fulfill his obligation.

So, without a doubt, it is necessary that merchants be vigilant in assessing the credit quality of their accepted issuers. But if you're a merchant, you're most likely involved in multiple credit relations already, and adding a new one - in exchange for extremely low fees - may be a risk worth the profit. After all, these IOUs are instantly redeemable, so as a merchant, you choose how often you want to ensure your income, by redeeming IOUs into bitcoins on the Blockchain.

With dollars, I get to vote regularly for people, and those people appoint someone to call the shots on "how dollars work". So does everyone else (well, registered voters, but you get my drift). They don't need to be versed in printing or ACH or whatever to have their voice heard.

With bitcoin, if I'm not happy, where do I go to have my voice heard? Saying "code up your changes and get 51% of the network on board" isn't the same, not even same ballpark, or neighborhood, as "here's your ballot, citizen".

So that's my beef with bitcoin.

It gets pushed as a universal method of payment, for which it is ill suited at present die to blocksize concerns, as an investment (you aren't really 'investing' in anything, IMHO), as a currency-replacement (with a fixed amount? Hullo gold standard) and all sorts of things.

It also burns through an absolute ton of electricity, as the tradeoff for decentralisation. Personally, I'm not actually terrified of centralised banks and managed currency...

It's not the tech itself that gets the hate; it's the community around it that gets the hate. The ones who have drunken the Kool-Aid are not only some of the least knowledgable about monetary and fiscal policy, but they are soooooo smug about it. And the persecution complex they make up rivals that of American Christians around Christmastime.

Some people are attracted to using Bitcoin as a day to day currency and payments system, to reduce their dependence on mainstream banking. The "be your own bank" philosophy.

Admittedly right now Bitcoin seems like a novelty, but it will never reach wider use without small "pointless" steps like this.

You can't pay online with gold.

Bigger map on homepage: https://coincheck.com/en/blog/2353

Go to any of your bank's ATMs with your ATM card and/or passbook. Select 振込. Input amount. You will be asked the bank, bank branch, and 7 digit account number of the person you are sending it to. You will then be (typically) shown a screen which shows you the fee (100 to about 500 yen depending on bank and size of transaction) and lets you adjust your telephone number or name if required for the convenience of the firm receiving your payment. Hit OK. If done within banking hours, the payment is effectively instantaneous. If you cannot follow these instructions, you can ask a teller to assist.

If you're doing the transfers between your own accounts and they're at different institutions then one will occasionally see people withdraw to cash and then immediately redeposit in a second account, to save the ~300 yen or whatever.

In related news, Japan is a major Western country and banks do not communicate via couriers and smoke signals, contrary to impressions your friend may have.