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Ending Bitcoin Support

stripe.com

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Re: Ending Bitcoin Support

#401

Post by carlosthedwarf »

jnbiche wrote: post #360
clarkmoody wrote: post #309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Bitcoin isn't functioning correctly Please unpack this statement. Which part of the Bitcoin system is functioning incorrectly?

> Please unpack this statement. Which part of the Bitcoin system is functioning incorrectly? The payment system part. One of the main reasons why Satoshi created Bitcoin in the first place. As someone who got into Bitcoin in early 2011 (but left when things got crazy around 2014), it's utterly laughable to me that Bitcoin now can't even be used as a payment system. And that the fees per transaction are roughly the sa…

But isn't increasing the block size limit still just a temporary fix? Wouldn't Bitcoin Cash also be rendered useless as a payment system if it was handling a similar volume of transactions as bitcoin?

Re: Ending Bitcoin Support

#402

Post by Symbiote »

regularhackerer wrote: post #322
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.

I just used the bitcoin stripe thing couple days ago. Time limit was indeed quite scary: they had a timer on the side running with something like 15 minutes to go until you need to request a new temporary address. Mine ran out but luckily it was still accepted.

What were you trying to buy?

Re: Ending Bitcoin Support

#403

Post by lawn »

CryoLogic wrote: post #352

IOTA can actually handle great TPS unlike bitcoin. BTC is maybe 10TPS cap while IOTA is pushing towards 2k TPS which is what Visa can do.

Damn lot's of people are pushing their favorite coin.

Here are some reasons IOTA is a shitcoin and cannot ever replace Bitcoin:

1. No decentralized solution to the double spend problem. The very reason Bitcoin exists IOTA fails at. 2. Dev team is so incompetent they tried to implement their own cryptographic hash function and predictably failed. 3. Mass buzzwords: Quantum proof, ternary(!), Internet of Things, instant transactions, no fees! Everything is perfect! 4. They have no solution to spam. POW is the only cost to transactions but it's extremely low so dedicated computers can outspend everyone else. With the way the tangle works this in practice mean transactions won't be confirmed. 5. Their network doesn't even work properly with users trying or hours to get their transaction accepted by the network.

There are more but I can't be bothered.

Re: Ending Bitcoin Support

#404

Post by Lazare »

nwah1 wrote: post #281
rwcarlsen wrote: post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

His entire comment is about the differences between BTC and Monero and Bitcoin Cash that make the latter two more desirable. Not sure how your interpretation is remotely accurate.

Stripe is getting rid of bitcoin because it has proven to be impractical at scale. It is impractical at scale because the fundamental technology, proof-of-work, is impractical at scale. The two alternatives mentioned are the same in this respect, with only the smallest differences.

Scaling is not a binary. Being "practical at scale" depends on what scale you're talking about. Some things scale better than others; sometimes you can make a change that allows for better scaling. Sometimes something may not scale very well, but may scale well enough for a specific task.

Bitcoin has made a number of decisions to limit how well it can scale. Other systems, despite having the same basic underpinning, have made different decisions, and can scale better.

Re: Ending Bitcoin Support

#405

Post by eosrei »

bparsons wrote: post #382
koheripbal wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I honestly don't know what use-case remains for Bitcoin. If you have large value transactions you'd probably choose something with privacy like Monero, and if you want something cheap and fast, maybe Bitcoin Cash. In both use-cases, you have a few competing alternatives. In no circumstance is Bitcoin preferable to one of the mature alternatives. ...and if no one is using it as a transaction medium, then acting as a s…

I think Bitcoin is the AOL of blockchain technology. It was a first mover, it had huge uptake and valuation, but in a few years (or perhaps already) someone is going to build a protocol that is capable of hundreds of thousands of secure transactions a second, and it will make Bitcoin look archaic.

FWIW that is the goal of the Lightning Network on Bitcoin: https://lightning.network/

Re: Ending Bitcoin Support

#406

Post by vec »

Jommi wrote: post #379
vec wrote: post #289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I run a midsize ecommerce site and, from where I'm sitting, Stripe looks at least as essential in a crypto economy as they are now. We don't want to handle the mechanics of refunds. We don't want to handle the mechanics of disputes. We don't want to get scammed because we screwed up some small detail of our payment layer. We certainly don't want to do our internal accounting in more than one currency, crypto or other…

Wow. The short-sightedness in this comment is astounding. Check out on some of those "advantages" that trusting those thirdparties can mean for you: https://www.google.fi/search?q=paypal+destroyed+my+business&... https://www.google.fi/search?q=amazon+destroyed+my+business&...

Yeah, sure, what's your point?

I worry about getting screwed over by any of a dozen vendors, including but not limited to our payment processor. I also worry about getting scammed, about losing all our money due to a bug, about costly human errors, and about getting priced out of the market by competitors who take shortcuts I'm not willing to.

On balance, we feel that the benefits of sitting behind a payment processor outweigh the drawbacks. Our trust isn't absolute, but we feel the risk of trusting a third party is smaller than the risk we would have to incur by not trusting a third party.

Re: Ending Bitcoin Support

#407

Post by lawn »

gthtjtkt wrote: post #335

This is the main reason Litecoin exists. Strange that they decided not to use it...

Litecoin failed to gain the network effect which is so crucial for a currency. It never had a roadmap other than copying what Bitcoin did. It's not even a cheap coin to use compared to the alternatives.

There's no reason to use Litecoin over Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum or Monero at this point.

Re: Ending Bitcoin Support

#408

Post by vkou »

lelandbatey wrote: post #386
Larrikin wrote: post #372

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does money get in or out of such a system. If you're cut off from all sources of fiat what's the point?

The point is that people can still use it for things, and the various dark net markets that exist prove that there's at least some kind of use for unofficial (pseudo?)-anonymous currency. Though, by no means are darknets the only way of getting some use out of unofficial currencies. There will always be desire and utility for such systems.

Those darknet markets are only used to buy illegal things, or circumvent currency controls.

I understand using a darknet to buy heroin and assassinations, but why on earth would I want to use a darknet market to buy a car? To pay my rent?

Re: Ending Bitcoin Support

#409

Post by Lazare »

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?

People don't buy stuff with gold, but it's been a viable store of value for a long time.

That being said, the burden of proof to show that Bitcoin is going to be a viable store of value is simply enormous. Further, gold has a number of characteristics that make it fairly unique; nobody is running around saying "gold is great, but have you considered tantalum?". If you want to put a bunch of precious metal in a vault, gold is clearly a good default choice. Whereas Bitcoin is anything but unique now, and is not an obvious default choice.

Re: Ending Bitcoin Support

#410

Post by stctgion »

fastball wrote: post #35
gizmo385 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

It's not gold. Gold has a long history of being a stable store of value. I could buy gold now and sit back and not worry that the price was about to fall through the floor. Owning bitcoin is not the same. At any moment it could tank. If all the investors suddenly got interested in Pokémon cards they would be just as useful as a store of value.
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