I'm going to split hairs here, and I'm sorry for that, but micropayments, and offering your computing power is not free. I do agree with your love of the tech, but there are a few projects out there that aim to be 100% free from fees. IOTA is fantastic, but damn it will be hard to take down the big boys....people don't seem to care about the tech until it comes closer to home ie: on a card you can use at the grocery store etc.
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I agree with you. Processing transactions on IOTA isn't "free" - it does take computing power... It is however a - "No transaction fee" situation. We all have way more computing power at our fingertips than we need or even use - so why not use something I already have and have paid for (my PC) to "pay" for the transaction fee. In my experience, the proof of work takes less than a minute per transaction. The PC is still usable during that time frame. The energy cost is minuscule and the capital cost for the PC has already been paid for long ago. In this sense by using IOTA, I am just leveraging my previously made investments in technology. IOTA is building mobile android and IOS wallet apps as well. Many people are already using mobile devices to make payments for gas, goods and services using credit accounts. IOTA will simply adopt that existing working model and apply it to the crypto account. One day soon bank issued cards will disappear. Once a fee-less option becomes available to merchants, why would they keep paying the banks for retail credit card processing equipment? Why would they keep paying 2-3% of every sale to the credit card processors? Once the technology is simple and widespread enough for everyday people to use - the merchants will encourage customers to move to IOTA as payment through discount incentives. If you were offered a 1% discount on most things that you purchased (because the merchant doesn't have to pay 2-3% anymore to the credit card processor), wouldn't you do what it takes to get the discount? Especially if it was simple to do. The customer wins and the merchant wins in this scenario. The only loser is the credit card processor who has become obsolete through technology changes. The big boys are big because of past success. The world is a constantly changing environment. The big boys will change or die slow economic deaths. That is the reality of the world we live in.
Absolutely. They won't be going anywhere though, trust me, they were working on their solution for how to address these issues probably before we had heard of blockchain technology. They will adapt. The big companies are all applying for patents for creating those kinds of free transactions....they just find other ways to make their money. For example, cable companies are suffering bad, so they start offering lower priced cable, and higher priced internet...yes with better speeds, but they've been dumbing down our speeds since the 80s just because. The fees go down, but the products go up. I would love to see a situation where small companies can compete with better technology, and they will, but what most companies do is build up a great tech and company, then sell that tech and company to a large conglomerate. Money talks, and they will use that money to keep making newer better things for those of us ahead of the trend. That's where the advantage of something like IOTA is. People on a site like this, and invested in the market are way ahead of the game, even at this point in time.
I was fortunate enough to grow up with computers in my home in the 80's, due to my dad being a graphic designer and one of the very few people within 3000 miles that knew how to work layouts and printing jobs. It seemed natural to me to have those things around, but they were very costly and hard to manage and upgrade. When the home PC thing hit in the mid to late 90's, I was appalled at what people thought was great and new technology. Everything gets dumbed down for the mass audience, but there is always a cutting edge. IOTA is cutting edge, but will likely be dumbed down to some degree to adapt to the masses for regular use once it's bought up by VISA or someone like that. I mentioned to @vimukthi a little while back that it is sort of like how the credit card machines in stores now read the chip on your bank card. That chip has been there for a LONG LONG time, and those machines have had that slot for a long long time, but it took this long to get everyone to get up to speed and to make the tech useful to enough people.
I'm with you though, I will always go with the cheaper, faster, more advanced method.....even if it takes me a little more work to do it. And you're right, the computing power is minimal. You said the POW for them is about a minute? That's pretty quick, but I have yet to find a system that moves and confirms faster than Ripple and Verge.....Ripple being a little quicker. And scaling is obviously important as well, which IOTA seems to have under control. I'm all for it, I just feel like through my life experiences, people like you and I will always be disappointed in the speed of adaptation and lack of reaching full potential out there in the wild world of commerce.
These conversations do spur a little more hope each time though....just knowing you're not the only one trying to help make these things happen!
Just read this article: https://hackernoon.com/what-will-bitcoin-look-like-in-twenty-years-7e75481a798c
Seemed pretty relevant to our discussion here. Thought I would share it!
VERY relevant! Great read too! Thank you for sharing. I feel like we almost wrote that article in our discussion!