this post was submitted on 18 Mar 2024
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They’re still pretty bad at being currency. Transaction fees are still too high and it’s still pretty slow and/or complicated
Fees are high in Bitcoin but there are other options that are low fees/faster (still too complex for most people imo
I see cryptocurrency ATMs in various random places around town, they're evidently not too complex for common usage. I think this is a bit of a chicken and egg thing, people would figure them out if sites like Gumroad actually used them. Porn is a powerful motivator for human ingenuity.
And yeah, Bitcoin's fees are silly and I wouldn't recommend it for anyone wanting to use it as a currency. The Bitcoin community long ago decided they wanted to be "digital gold" and are firmly dedicated to making the token unusable for anything other than that. For general currency usage I'd recommend looking into stabletokens like USDC or DAI, they run on the Ethereum blockchain instead.
I see the occasional Bitcoin ATM but they seem to be Bitcoin only, and they have their own high fees. I agree with the stablecoins point, though. Although ethereum has worse fees than Bitcoin these days there are ofc L2 options like those listed at https://l2beat.com
Fees with lightning (Bitcoin) are often under a penny per transaction and transactions settle instantly. Usability has come a long way here.
Is it? The ATMs have been all over the place for half a decade at this point.
As for fees it cost me 3 cents to send a $50 Litecoin transaction a few days ago. If I did that with Bitcoin it would have cost me $8 in transaction fees so you're right there.
Now days there's a coin for every purpose.
Bitcoin = gold bars
Litecoin = mundane transactions
Monero = digital cash
Crypto has been around for 15 years already. Time flys.
Speak for your own location.
Also, "crypto works as a functional currency, which can be demonstrated by how you need to sell it for cash in order actually buy anything with it" isn't the argument you think it is.
I didn't "sell it for cash" I paid my VPS hosting bills with it. It's simple for business to accept crypto these days, couple clicks and they're set up.
If your business is making NSFW art than you better be willing to adapt.
Yeah, but name a single big box retailer that takes a cryptocurrency at the point of sale? You can't because none do. Having to find an ATM to be able to complete a transaction isn't scalable. And for retailers, seconds count at the PoS. So if it takes any significant time at all to process a transaction, they're not going to do it. Further, they're not going to eat the kind of fees that crypto brings along with it. Same reason a lot of retailers don't take AmEx, for example. The transaction fees are outrageous. So as a retailer you either eat it, which most won't, or you pass the cost on to the customer, and alienate your customers.
Until you can walk into a McDonalds or a Walmart and swipe or tap something at their payment terminal to pay with your cryptocoin, it's not going to be viable. And I'm not talking about exchanging it for cash, and then paying. I'm talking about the retailer actually accepting the coin.
As a currency, crypto has utterly failed. It's nothing but a speculator market, and an extremely dirty and volatile one at that.
Much like cash an ATM isn't needed by a lot of people as they bank online and use cards. Crypto has all those options as well.
Point is here you either adapt or have to find a new job because old payment processors won't let you sell your Giraffe bukkake art. It is what it is.
So simple you need to use three different currencies