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Comment by ForHackernews | Hacker News Reader

This sounds like a better alternative to bitcoin! I guess it requires a trusted central authority, but for most users that's a feature not a bug, and it sounds like it has a load of advantages:

- Faster transactions

- Can work "offline" (to some extent)

- No wasted energy calculating redundant sha256

- Able to rectify fraudulent transactions

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What use case is there for this where it's better than bitcoin?

This is just a local payment system, that's existed for centuries as scrip. ("On a computer" doesn't change the nature of it.)

Centralization undermines the purpose of bitcoin.

> What use case is there for this where it's better than bitcoin?

Any situation where you want to purchase legal goods or services? Or hold some money temporarily in a low-volatility cash-like form?

It's backed by a nation-state that has carrier groups?

Lol you just described credit cards.

Stored value cards are different from debit cards: Their value is physically stored on the chip, rather than the card just being a reference to some centrally maintained account.

As a consequence, they are usable completely offline and with very low latency.

No, because credit cards charge exorbitant interest rates. This is more analogous to electronic cash, since the value is stored on the card.

this was tried in the UK in the late 90s (see !w Mondex) ... i sooo wish it was a thing today!

Look at the Stellar Lumens Cryptocurrency.

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