Ending Bitcoin Support • Hacker News Board

Re: Ending Bitcoin Support

#31

Post by artursapek » Tue, Jan 23, 2018, 7:17 PM UTC

vec wrote: post #18

For what it's worth, we just spent two weeks trying and failing to get Stripe's Bitcoin integration working on our site. The short version is that Stripe guaranteed a USD BTC exchange rate for an hour, after which they would automatically cancel the transaction. Given that most transactions now take well over an hour to be verified on the blockchain, that means basically every transaction fails.

We've seen this increasingly happening as well, and it's kind of embarrassing because it's for a crypto-related website. After struggling with it for months I'm not surprised Stripe has thrown in the towel here.

Re: Ending Bitcoin Support

#32

Post by geofft » Tue, Jan 23, 2018, 7:17 PM UTC

brndnmtthws wrote: post #2

Is this a precursor to pumping their own shitcoin Stellar Lumens? I see they casually dropped it in there after naming a couple others to appear unbiased. They claim to be interested in Lightning Network, but aren't interested in using it? That's a bit lame. Or a lot lame.

> They claim to be interested in Lightning Network, but aren't interested in using it?

I don't understand how you conclude this from the post.

(Does Lightning even exist today? Could they use it today if they wanted to?)

Re: Ending Bitcoin Support

#33

Post by nebulous1 » Tue, Jan 23, 2018, 7:17 PM UTC

mankash666 wrote: post #5

Ethereum transaction fees are still in cents. They should start supporting it as a form of payment.

Actually it's pretty high too these days (not compared to Bitcoin of course)

https://bitinfocharts.com/comparison/ethereum-transactionfee...

Re: Ending Bitcoin Support

#34

Post by glesperance » Tue, Jan 23, 2018, 7:18 PM UTC

brndnmtthws wrote: post #26

glesperance wrote: post #3

Given that bitcoin isn't a medium of transaction anymore and a store of value this makes a lot of sense. Too bad they aren't replacing this with another cryptocurrency at the moment.

Last I checked Bitcoin still works fine for transactions.

Have your tried XLM, XRP, LTC, Dash, or pretty much any other cryptocurrency?

They're much faster, and considerably cheaper than Bitcoin to use.

Re: Ending Bitcoin Support

#35

Post by fastball » Tue, Jan 23, 2018, 7:18 PM UTC

gizmo385 wrote: post #25

glesperance wrote: post #3

Given that bitcoin isn't a medium of transaction anymore and a store of value this makes a lot of sense. Too bad they aren't replacing this with another cryptocurrency at the moment.

> Given that bitcoin isn't a medium of transaction anymore and a store of value this makes a lot of sense. Can someone bother explaining what this actually means? 3 weeks ago everyone is hype about how Bitcoin is going to be the future of currency and now that it's tanking and vendors are dropping it like a hot potato, its no longer a transactional currency and it's now a "store of value".

Bitcoin is currently the crypto equivalent of gold. It's not reasonable to use it to buy a coffee. However, Bitcoin is trying (but many would argue, failing) to upgrade the network with something that will allow cheaper/faster transactions and make it a reasonable currency again. However, (imo) in-fighting has seriously hampered this. That being the reality, many people hope that Bitcoin will remain a store of value into the future, even if most people are using some other crypto for actual day-to-day transactions.

There are "old-school" cryptos with lower transaction fees (Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash). There is not much reason to use them as an actual currency except for the fact that they have more inertia than most other projects (and therefore more things have been built around them). In particular, most places that had some sort of Bitcoin integration can very easily switch to Bitcoin Cash for much lower tx fees.

There are many cryptos that are trying to be currency in a permanently scalable way (IOTA, Ripple, Stellar)

Other cryptos are trying to be cash, i.e. anonymous (Dash, Monero, ZCash).

Most others are either A. intended to be more platform than currency (Ethereum, NEO, EOS, Tron) or B. too small to mention.

Re: Ending Bitcoin Support

#36

Post by chocolatebunny » Tue, Jan 23, 2018, 7:18 PM UTC

montrose wrote: post #15

This reads a bit like the sort of things people say when breaking up so as not to upset the other person too much. You're a great person, but you're just more of an asset than a medium of exchange, and what I need in my life right now is a medium of exchange. What future does an asset have if people don't actually buy stuff with it? That is not a purely rhetorical question; cryptocurrencies change things a lot. But t…

Bitcoin is definitely acting more like an asset than a medium of exchange, and yeah, I don't see why it would hold any value if it's treated like an asset. But as soon as people realize that then it should go back to being a medium of exchange and then it'll hold value again as an asset?

Either way, just because Bitcoin isn't functioning correctly doesn't mean that all cryptocurrencies are not. But I guess at the moment it seems like everyone would rather hoard cryptocurrencies than actually use them for their intended purpose.

Re: Ending Bitcoin Support

#37

Post by viach » Tue, Jan 23, 2018, 7:18 PM UTC

montrose wrote: post #15

This reads a bit like the sort of things people say when breaking up so as not to upset the other person too much. You're a great person, but you're just more of an asset than a medium of exchange, and what I need in my life right now is a medium of exchange. What future does an asset have if people don't actually buy stuff with it? That is not a purely rhetorical question; cryptocurrencies change things a lot. But t…

> What future does an asset have if people don't actually buy stuff with it?

The same as gold does?

Re: Ending Bitcoin Support

#38

Post by maxerickson » Tue, Jan 23, 2018, 7:18 PM UTC

vec wrote: post #18

For what it's worth, we just spent two weeks trying and failing to get Stripe's Bitcoin integration working on our site. The short version is that Stripe guaranteed a USD BTC exchange rate for an hour, after which they would automatically cancel the transaction. Given that most transactions now take well over an hour to be verified on the blockchain, that means basically every transaction fails.

Did their api allow you to set the transaction fee?

Re: Ending Bitcoin Support

#39

Post by andrewtbham » Tue, Jan 23, 2018, 7:18 PM UTC

brndnmtthws wrote: post #2

Is this a precursor to pumping their own shitcoin Stellar Lumens? I see they casually dropped it in there after naming a couple others to appear unbiased. They claim to be interested in Lightning Network, but aren't interested in using it? That's a bit lame. Or a lot lame.

Absolutely. FTA

> We may add support for Stellar (to which we provided seed funding) if substantive use continues to grow.

Re: Ending Bitcoin Support

#40

Post by geofft » Tue, Jan 23, 2018, 7:18 PM UTC

montrose wrote: post #15

This reads a bit like the sort of things people say when breaking up so as not to upset the other person too much. You're a great person, but you're just more of an asset than a medium of exchange, and what I need in my life right now is a medium of exchange. What future does an asset have if people don't actually buy stuff with it? That is not a purely rhetorical question; cryptocurrencies change things a lot. But t…

My reading of this post is that Stripe has no particular love for Bitcoin, but wants to avoid the ire of the Bitcoin fans on the internet, and so it's coated in "Bitcoin is great, we were the first people to adopt it, we can't criticize it at all" etc. etc.