Who needs a dongle for mobile payments?
forbes.com
forbes.com
- It's a pain in the ass to move money in and out of bitcoin.
- Constantly fluctuating prices means sellers have to constantly change their prices in bitcoins.
- Mistrust over bitcoin / mtgox sites like tradehill and the recent hacks.
- The threat of repeat crashes and rollbacks.
- A bad reputation due to the bitcoin crash a year ago.
- The ability to lose all your bitcoins if your computer crashes and you don't have your wallet backed up.
I think people keep talking about it in a desperate attempt to make the value go back up so they can get back the money they lost when the bitcoin bubble popped. Look I lost money in it to, time to move on from this crypto-currency crap and go back to the reality that we're stuck with Paypal, Credit Cards, and Dwolla.
Do you think that the way the Visa/MC network is implemented is simple enough to explain to someone who does not understand computers? No? Hm, I wonder how people use it...
The point of articles like this is usually to highlight usability improvements for a particular solution, and in this case, to highlight the fact that their is no hardware requirement for bitcoin.
Also, re: the difficulty of acquiring bitcoin: mobile apps like this mean that if one party in a transaction has bitcoin, the other party can go from 0 to 60 on accepting bitcoin in the time it takes to download the app from their app store.
By almost any metric (including value) bitcoin is healthy, and slowly growing: http://blockchain.info/charts
And in the interest of full disclosure: yes, I have an investment in bitcoin, because I truly believe in the strength of the concept.
Mom: "What's bitcoin Chris?"
Geek shit. Download the bitcoin desktop or mobile app. Make sure your wallet file is backed up otherwise you can lose all of your money. Using Dwolla transfer money (takes 5-7 days) from your bank account into MtGox and buy bitcoins. The time you buy them determines their value (just like exchanging currency). Then when you want to pay for something put in the person's bitcoin address 1HULMwZEPkjEPeCh43BeKJL1ybLCWrfDpN and send them some bitcoins. The seller might want to wait until the network confirms a transaction. And in the event of a rollback? What then? Oh and you have to keep transferring money from your bank account to dwolla to mtgox to your bitcoin wallet every month if you want to seriously use it like a credit card or check.
All of this to avoid transaction fees and give yourself the feeling of "freedom". Wow.
Many of the bitcoin enthusiasts are what I call "repeaters". They simply repeat how great bitcoin is/can be without ever having actually tried to use it as a real currency. They saw the phrases "transaction free", "p2p", and "no government control" and assumed it was the best thing ever. I was one of those people. I have learned and moved on and hope others do too.
You're skipping the part where she needs to have a bank account, check book, and possibly postage stamps in order to pay her credit card bill.
> ... transfer money (takes 5-7 days) from your bank account...
> ... seller might want to wait until the network confirms a transaction...
She is already familiar with financial institutions taking forever to process payments/clear checks. Additionally, she is familiar with checks bouncing, and with cards being declined.
> Then when you want to pay for something put in the person's bitcoin address
Or, as seen in the linked article, she hits 'Send bitcoins', and then waves her phone at the recipients phone.
> I was one of those people.
It's brave of you to admit that you did not research the thing you invested in. Many of us have.
Anyone who actually wants to _do_ mobile payments. The author reveals zero understanding of human behavior, payment processing or how to get business/service traction.
There's a good reason PayPal and Square are now in the best position to actually deliver some meaningful advances in payment processing: they both originally took advantage of human behavior and existing rails.
I won't debate the merits of Bitcoin as a currency replacement as it is not needed, traded nor quoted in the financial markets. And by financial markets, I'm referring to the little club that certain banks and hedge funds have going between themselves, not the service your buddy operates from his apartment.