Re:402 Payment Required, and why micropayments are doomed
by zozbot234 on Tuesday May 19, 2020 @05:11PM
(#23240250)
Crypto currency does not have "low" transaction costs: it takes a lot of energy to commit a BTC transaction to the blockchain. Crypto can only ever be viable for non-trivial (large, or unusually valuable) transactions where trust cannot be provided by common mechanisms, such as a stable government or a private escrow agent. This clearly doesn't match the typical use case for micropayments.
Re:402 Payment Required, and why micropayments are doomed
by gruez on Tuesday May 19, 2020 @07:51PM
(#23241735)
>it takes a lot of energy to commit a BTC transaction to the blockchain
This is a misunderstanding of how mining works. It takes virtually zero energy to create a block (ie. commit a transaction). However, it takes massive amounts of energy for your block to be considered valid. This is because each block also comes with a block subsidy (currently 6.25BTC), which many miners are competing for.
Re:402 Payment Required, and why micropayments are doomed
by littlestymaar on Wednesday May 20, 2020 @04:17AM
(#23244536)
I don't think the OP is misunderstanding anything, but you seems to be: the proof of work occurs at the creation of the block (which doesn't really mean “commit a transaction” but instead “acknowledge a bunch of transactions requested by users”), the “validation” comes from other miners adding more blocks to yours (the “chain” thing).
Re:402 Payment Required, and why micropayments are doomed
by doomslice on Tuesday May 19, 2020 @05:13PM
(#23240276)
Bitcoin (and other proof of work coins) are not suitable for the job. But there are cryptocurrencies out there that are almost purpose-built for it! Stellar, on which https://satoshipay.io/ is built, is one of those.
Re:402 Payment Required, and why micropayments are doomed
by Dacod on Tuesday May 19, 2020 @05:24PM
(#23240431)
It also assumes the world is limited to what can and cannot work in the US. In some parts of the world micro payments are the majority of payments.
If you removed those two assumptions, micropayments make sense.
Crypto currency actually can solve those problems elegantly. You can have low transaction costs. And, transactions can be anonymous and irreversible (depending on the currency).
Critics will rightly point out those promises are not always kept (ethereum gas prices, for example), but they are the goals. Lower transaction fees, I would assert, are not the goals of PayPal.
The problem is not technical. It's that there isn't mass adoption. If a well funded startup did a "Fresno Drop" they might be able to overcome that. That would be interesting and could be very effective.
https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/the-fresno-drop/
Full disclosure: I'm working on such a system and have a patent pending on the process.