Many years ago, I used bitcoin to pay for web and e-mail hosting. Heck, there were several pubs in town offering the option to pay with crypto. I was paid for remote freelance web development work using bitcoin several times, none of it criminal (one example: a car dealership sales portal customization). All of that was above board, reported to government, taxes paid, etc.
Providers moved away from it because of sentiments like this becoming prevailing (lots of people used it for illicit activities of course) which is a shame.
Public sentiment has nothing to do with what the tech can actually be used for.
That said, the environment impact caused is the larger concern to have IMO.
I would say people moved away from accepting bitcoin for beer because it's wildly fluctuating value made it unsuitable for use as a day to day currency, and because they realized it was a gimmick whose inconvenience (for the vendor) was not worth the limited interest in using it as such.
Coinbase has the option of immediately converting crypto payments into fiat, eliminating that problem.
> and because they realized it was a gimmick whose inconvenience (for the vendor) was not worth the limited interest in using it as such.
This is the bigger issue.
Even if it's an online vendor where having to wait an hour for the transaction to get 6 confirmations isn't a problem, they still have to either integrate with another payment processor like Coinbase to accept the payment, or spend money building their own. In any case, it's cost and infrastructure to setup and they're probably unlikely to see RoI.
Sure. You want to update your bitcoin prices what, hourly, to make sure you are charging what you meant to? I'm not sure that coinbase service exactly eliminates the problem. But I'm sure that is a useful service for some!
But yeah, we're on the same page. Overall... it is not a convenient thing for an ordinary business to take as payment for ordinary daily things.
That's one way to do it.
The other is to charge in USD just like you normally would. When the customer opts to pay in Bitcoin, they get sent to Coinbase which will convert the price into Bitcoin immediately and tell the customer what the balance is in Bitcoin. The exchange rate won't favor the customer, as it will include some amount extra to cover the possibility of the value dropping before the transaction is confirmed.
IMHO most Eth L2s already show more promise than PayPal as a future payment rail tech, despite them all basically being in beta state. Much lower fees, faster transactions, permissionless withdrawals, fully programmable, negligible energy usage now thanks to PoS.
(IMHO it’s likely that other tech/protocols will emerge in 3-5 yrs that supersedes the protocols in development today.)
Lots of typical crypto caveats - eg: USDC on an L2 is centralized around Circle’s ability to redeem. Protocols can have bugs that make coins go poof. Non custodial ownership is harder for many users than asking PayPal or a bank not to lose their funds. L2s specifically are typically run by a single sequencer who could potentially disrupt your ability to use the network smoothly (but then you could use an escape hatch to permissionlessly get your funds out if that happens).
The UI is really up to the apps, the good thing is there are many teams working on payments so there will be plenty to choose from to find the UI you like, and people will be able to pay via the same wallet. Stripe already has USDC payments on crypto rails and Visa is working with Starknet to integrate with these L2s too.
All the L2s with their usage, security, speed and tradeoffs are at http://l2beat.com
All being said and done, all the L2 are just centralization projects. These chains and tokens will always be controlled by a small number of early movers. Eventually, it doesn't even fulfill the very purpose of all these tokens - being peer to peer money.
> planet destroying ponzi
I don't see how Bitcoin is a ponzi scheme.
> slow, expensive payment system using its own wildly fluctuating currency that consumes the energy of a small country
You don't have to use Bitcoin, you can e.g. use a stablecoin on an Ethereum roll-up.
It's not slow; transactions finalize within 1 minute (and soon, less). It's not expensive; it costs less than 10 cents (and soon, less). It doesn't fluctuate wildly, because it value is stabilized using one of several mechanisms. It doesn't consume the energy of a small country, because it does not use proof of work.
I'm sorry but you have no idea what you're talking about. I bet you couldn't even name three stablecoins and describe how they maintain price stability.
Hint: There are three main backing types (tradfi-backed, overcollateralized, algorithmic), and two peg types (fixed, floating).
For a list of examples, see the categories used in Operation Choke Point:
So calling it 'acting stupid' totally negates the stranglehold that Paypal and Stripe have on a majority of online commerce and payments and totally liberates people from their unregulated tyranny then...
...
Things dont change their nature by 'rephrasing them differently'. Unregulated private tyrannies that dominate people's lives are still unregulated private tyrannies.
There is a time and place for each argument and there is a time and place for conceding the argument. This is one of them:
No one can ban anyone from crypto. If your business wallet gets stolen, you suffer some losses, but you can create a new wallet, add it as your payment option in your business or personal account at your site or wherever, and just continue your life.
With these unregulated private tyrannies, you cant.
> planet destroying ponzi.
2010s called. They want their proof of work back. What decade are you living in. Dont keep repeating invalidated arguments. That looks like religious zealotry.
Just no. PayPal has always acted like this and shut down people's accounts for vague reasons. Stop cheerleading for them.
Criminal activity on a public and traceable blockchain makes crypto worse for criminals to use. That is why scammers and criminals are using Zelle and the banks for their criminal enterprise. [0]
[0] https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/06/business/payments-fraud-z...
And we will be thankful for that when we are all classed as criminals.
Sometimes, criminal activities are justified when all you do is to protect yourself. For example, when you live in a lawless area, and you need protection against bigger criminals. Peaceful countries with overall working systems are just one side of the world.