Great article. The only problem I had with it was an IP address being analogous to a bitcoin public address. Stripe.com is vouchsafed by a certificate authority, so when you go to the address either by typing or by a link, you have some reasonable, if sometimes tenuous, assurance that you are dealing with the real stripe.com and not some typo-squatting fraud or MITM. Using friendly addresses for payment removes the statistical uniqueness of public keys from the equation. As long as the friendly identifier is not the primary one, there is no issue, but I see nothing wrong with establishing identity through copy/pasting a bitcoin address from a known trusted source or scanning a QR code.
Bitcoin: the Stripe perspective
61–70 of 249 posts
Re: Bitcoin: the Stripe perspective
#62Taking this a step further, when using it as a pure transport medium, the cryptocurrency itself doesn't matter. It could be Bitcoin, Litecoin, Dogecoin, 2304293f20983uf2089j2f3coin, or whatever, as long as it's liquid enough to convert back and forth. What we really need is a gateway system that will intelligently convert between your local currency -> the cryptocurrency with the best liquidity/exchange rate -> the d…
Correct. You could also solve the "unit of account" and "store of value" problem by pegging your crypto-currency to the USD, 1:1 exchange. Then you get the advantage of the decentralized transport network and the stability of the dollar (or any other preferred real world currency).
It's tends to not be a popular opinion around here (there are probably a few with vested interests), but Bitcoin as a currency is fatally flawed. It's supply is structured so that Bitcoin perpetually increases in value, thereby perpetually slowing down the velocity of Bitcoin transactions.
Re: Bitcoin: the Stripe perspective
#63This is one of the best posts on the "state of the Bitcoin economy" I've read yet. They nail a few key points that shows they get it in a real-world sense. * Mass-consumer adoption of Bitcoin is a tough sell in developed countries (USA, etc.) * Bitcoin the Network may ultimately be more valuable than BTC the currency * "No chargebacks!" is a pitch to merchants for BTC, not consumers. Consumers like chargebacks & trus…
> * Bitcoin the Network may ultimately be more valuable than BTC the currency This is a fundamental misunderstanding of Bitcoin. Because each and every Bitcoin function as a sort of "token" that provides access to this payment network, their value is closely tied to the value of the network. For Bitcoin to become an international payment gateway system, liquidity requires every Bitcoin to be worth a lot.
I guess I mean "valuable" in the intrinsic sense, not the financial sense. If, for example, in the model that Stripe outlines, the Bitcoin network ends up powering the Bank-to-Bank side of things (away from the consumer), only a handful of counterparties are going to be involved on the BTC side of things. Millions of consumers may use Stripe/whoever to send $$ to millions of other consumers, but that might all be handled by a (relatively) few BTC flying back and forth in batches on the back-end, which doesn't necessarily require a large per-BTC price.
I know not a perfect example but that's my gist.
Re: Bitcoin: the Stripe perspective
#64> First, the resulting ecosystem is technologically open. Open ecosystems have a way of getting better much faster than their closed counterpart.
Unless you are specifically in the business of making financial institutions, it would seem that Stripe (and for that matter, nearly every payment provider that a computer can interact with) is open in all the ways that matter to a normal person.
> There are a number of cryptocurrencies which already have gateways baked in at a protocol level (such as Open Transactions and Ripple). However, there are huge network effects in any financial system, and to date these other systems have failed to win the necessary user support.
So you agree with the above—that as far as history is concerned, just being open doesn't get you adopted. :)
Bitcoin's crazy volatility and speculation drives "user support." It's ironic, because (1) the volatility is what makes Bitcoin unsuitable as a currency from the perspective of everything that matters economically (like your example, value storage) but (2) the volatility makes Bitcoin phenomenally successful as a currency from the perspective of user acquisition.
I don't know why it's so hard to promote transaction systems. Maybe there's some rule out there that no one competes on the basis of transaction fees, and those who do are shut out of the cabal. That's not a conspiracy that I subscribe to. Maybe the minimum transaction fee to make things economically viable is 2.9% of every transaction. So people do make platforms with lower transaction fees, but then they can't afford to tell you about it, or they don't manage to enrich themselves enough to make it worthwhile.
But Bitcoin, it managed to lie and tell us, "the lowest possible transaction fees;" while technically true, you just pay for the economic cost of promoting the platform and enriching its owners through its volatility.
In that sense, Bitcoin has been a terrific failure as a payment system. It's much worse to buy Bitcoin at the wrong time than to pay 2.9% on every transaction. But as a payment platform, as far as venture capitalists are concerned, it's fabulously successful. The early buyers of Bitcoin did enjoy a fabulous return.
User acquisition with negative cost to the platform's owners? Brilliant.
Re: Bitcoin: the Stripe perspective
#65This is my favourite article about Bitcoin to date, and properly describes one of the main ideas I wish Bitcoin detractors would come around to. Bitcoin has a lot of problems as a unit of account and as a store of value, but that is not primarily what Satoshi was building ( https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf ). Bitcoin is, and has always been, a medium of exchange first and foremost. It still has some shortcomings in th…
Agreed. The more I think about BTC, the more I understand that the exchange protocol is the most useful part of it. Storing value in an encrypted wallet on your computer is inconvenient to say the least. Not that I want local storage of value to go away, but as a consumer I want a very different payment experience than "here, have my CC number" or "let me pay with PayPal".
Satoshi wrote in the genesis block:
The Times 03/Jan/ 2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks
> Storing value in an encrypted wallet on your computer is inconvenient to say the least
It's possible to store Bitcoin on sheets of paper, or entirely in your brain, safely and securely.
I get the distinct feeling you've never used Bitcoin before. Please, sign up for an account at Coinbase and buy $1000+ of BTC or otherwise put yourself in the shoes of someone who wants to buy a serious amount of coin before making these sorts of statements.
Bitcoin isn't about being a PayPal competitor. It's money outside the State, always has been, always will be. Unless of course it is corrupted from the inside out, probably by whitewashed companies who are too afraid to embrace a great thing in spite of what regulators would like them to do.
Re: Bitcoin: the Stripe perspective
#66What about a voting system? With little keychains given out with only the voting system having the public key for, and any third party can validate the votes. "Coins", or voting credits can be distributed back to voters without transaction fees.
Re: Bitcoin: the Stripe perspective
#67This is one of the best posts on the "state of the Bitcoin economy" I've read yet. They nail a few key points that shows they get it in a real-world sense. * Mass-consumer adoption of Bitcoin is a tough sell in developed countries (USA, etc.) * Bitcoin the Network may ultimately be more valuable than BTC the currency * "No chargebacks!" is a pitch to merchants for BTC, not consumers. Consumers like chargebacks & trus…
> * Bitcoin the Network may ultimately be more valuable than BTC the currency This is a fundamental misunderstanding of Bitcoin. Because each and every Bitcoin function as a sort of "token" that provides access to this payment network, their value is closely tied to the value of the network. For Bitcoin to become an international payment gateway system, liquidity requires every Bitcoin to be worth a lot.
Agreed. The people who say that don't understand that something that Bitcoin got right (though it can be improved) are the incentives. People looking after their own self-interest will make Bitcoin work. That's why all those clones that tried to remove the currency part failed horribly. Eg: "It's like Bitcoin's blockchain, but for a social network!".
Re: Bitcoin: the Stripe perspective
#68This is one of the best posts on the "state of the Bitcoin economy" I've read yet. They nail a few key points that shows they get it in a real-world sense. * Mass-consumer adoption of Bitcoin is a tough sell in developed countries (USA, etc.) * Bitcoin the Network may ultimately be more valuable than BTC the currency * "No chargebacks!" is a pitch to merchants for BTC, not consumers. Consumers like chargebacks & trus…
> * Bitcoin the Network may ultimately be more valuable than BTC the currency This is a fundamental misunderstanding of Bitcoin. Because each and every Bitcoin function as a sort of "token" that provides access to this payment network, their value is closely tied to the value of the network. For Bitcoin to become an international payment gateway system, liquidity requires every Bitcoin to be worth a lot.
If one uses BTC primarily for exchange, one doesn't care what the "value" is. The only priorities are the convenience and reliability of the conversions into and out of BTC. These are threatened only a little by volatility, and not at all by actual BTC value.
Re: Bitcoin: the Stripe perspective
#69This is my favourite article about Bitcoin to date, and properly describes one of the main ideas I wish Bitcoin detractors would come around to. Bitcoin has a lot of problems as a unit of account and as a store of value, but that is not primarily what Satoshi was building ( https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf ). Bitcoin is, and has always been, a medium of exchange first and foremost. It still has some shortcomings in th…
Agreed. The more I think about BTC, the more I understand that the exchange protocol is the most useful part of it. Storing value in an encrypted wallet on your computer is inconvenient to say the least. Not that I want local storage of value to go away, but as a consumer I want a very different payment experience than "here, have my CC number" or "let me pay with PayPal".
That's the only thing about bitcoin that actually interests me, how easy is to make payments cutting and pasting some text.
But everything else surrounding bitcoin, I don't find it useful at all. I just want/need something like bitcoin, but connected to my €-denominated bank account. I don't want or need an alternative "digital currency" and I find the mere idea of one stupid, I just want to make exchanges with current currencies (which are already "digital", something that for some reason is missed all the time, maybe because it's much easier to get attention on the internet using buzzwords).
Because bitcoin wants to be a currency, and a decentralized one at that, it needs to do the cool, but weird shit that the blockchain is. All the cryptography behind it, i find it a massively complex waste of time that only gets justified because of the absurd fetish of decentralization. The world just needs to safely and easily exchange money through internet, nothing else. An overengineered solution that tries to workaround the current financial system for no good reason is not a great solution for that need IMO.
I'm hoping that at some point someone (banks, credit card companies, paypal) will end up doing what bitcoin doesn't wants to do.
Re: Bitcoin: the Stripe perspective
#70Earlier quoted context omitted.
Agreed. The more I think about BTC, the more I understand that the exchange protocol is the most useful part of it. Storing value in an encrypted wallet on your computer is inconvenient to say the least. Not that I want local storage of value to go away, but as a consumer I want a very different payment experience than "here, have my CC number" or "let me pay with PayPal".
Satoshi wrote in the genesis block: The Times 03/Jan/ 2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks Bitcoin was released in staunch opposition to the banking system. > Storing value in an encrypted wallet on your computer is inconvenient to say the least It's possible to store Bitcoin on sheets of paper, or entirely in your brain, safely and securely. I get the distinct feeling you've never used Bitcoin before…
>It's possible to store Bitcoin on sheets of paper
The process for making a secure paper wallet is far from convenient and brain wallets are about the worst possible way to store bitcoin and are far from safe and secure. If you're going to get some please do not use a brain wallet.