onetallnerd

Has his view on bitcoin changed? How does he view blockchain tech in general. Does he see machine to machine payments happening on tesla vehicles if so what tech or back end would he use?

No. You don't. It can be set to having to be on at least once a week, or trustlessly outsourcing the requirement.

Machine to Machine payments. Payable endpoints 402 payments? They're tech guys not marketing. I'm not sure if the LN guys even have marketing people?

Venmo is really nice, I just wouldn't trust it with anyone I don't have a social connection with. In that regard it's superior to bitcoin.. Although, I'm digging circle recently.. People can set it as USD, and when they send me money I get it in bitcoin, and vice versa. :-) Doesn't matter if they're outside the U.S. or someone I don't know.

Miners can run LN nodes too and profit off it as can anyone with bitcoin. The point is avoid the need or having to rely on "supernodes." You have other altcoins going other routes trying to fit as many of these small transactions on the blockchain... Good luck verify all that or keeping that decentralized.

I think you're missing the point. You can't scale Linden's micropayment worldwide without there being counterparty risk. It's much more useful to build these on top of decentralized systems with a strong bedrock without fearing the company being targeted by hackers or governments. Can you use Linden in China?

It was a genuine question?

Nope. At least soon that won't be the case. (soon as in a few months maybe a year) Check out the lightning network:

http://techcrunch.com/2015/06/13/down-the-blockchain-rabbit-...

"In theory, this distributed micropayment network–the Lightning Network–could scale Bitcoin transactions up to “billions of transactions per day” across the planet, with minimal use of the blockchain and minimal fees (zero, for direct channels.)" Instant and way more than 7 tps... Settled on the blockchain and still decentralized. ;)

Nice? 2.9% sounds horrible. Why do we pay that much again?

Has anyone defrauded you with a bitcoin payment yet? I assume volume is low, but out of that volume has there been any reports of fraud?

Yep, they convert it all using a payment processor or keep a small percentage, no risk. State currencies are volatile too. Just look at the Euro.