With this post I hope to start some discussion about Bitcoin as a method of payment.
So please leave a comment with your thoughts or answers to any of the questions.
Money or commodity?
I like the free market, I like Bitcoin, and I like forks but since the fork and now after SegWit, I have questions about the future of Bitcoin, not its value but its form. Is it still a Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System, with emphasis on Cash? Satoshi did not call it Electronic Commodity System... It remains the most accepted crypto-currency as payment in the world but could that change?
Damn you SegWit!
I've been waiting for SegWit, hoping for lower transaction fees and faster confirmation time.
This still didn't happen... After trying some transactions the fees felt like I was getting robbed and/or still had to wait for hours...
Will transaction fees lower like promised, maybe after the SegWit dust has settled?
Bitcoin Cash?
I'm considering not using Bitcoin for small payments and shopping, the fees are killing it... But what is the alternative? Should I start using Bitcoin Cash instead? Some say this is now the real Bitcoin as Satoshi intended... I'm not sure about it's value and as a payment system I think it has a long way to go.
Maybe there is a better Electronic Cash System in the crypto-ecosystem that is gaining widespread adaption, has low to no fees and fast transaction time, Ethereum, Dash, Monero, Litecoin?
Crypto Debit Card
The best solution for making payments with crypto-currencies I've seen so far are Crypto Debit Cards. I don't have one yet but I got my eye on TenX. It has a wallet that supports more than one crypto-currency with a card that is usable as a credit card, and an app that let's you decide wich currency to use, and no transaction fees! I think that is pretty cool! If someone could share his/her experience with it?
Resources
https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SegWit
http://segwit.party/charts/
https://news.bitcoin.com/bitfury-mines-segwit-block-larger-than-1mb-as-bitcoiners-wait-for-network-relief/
https://bitinfocharts.com/comparison/bitcoin-transactionfees.html
https://www.coindesk.com/segwits-slow-rollout-bitcoins-capacity-hasnt-seen-sudden-boost/
https://steemit.com/bitcoin/@blockrush/operation-white-elephant-five-reasons-why-satoshi-could-have-deserted-bitcoins-to-create-bitcoin-cash-blockrush
http://mashable.com/2017/08/28/bitcoin-transaction-fees/#UEhbTn4FNkqq
https://www.tenx.tech/
Great post. The decentralized element of Bitcoin that makes it great, also comes with some drawbacks. Bitcoin tends to take a life of its own, and it may grow into something it wasn't originally intended for.
The technology is young, and will improve. And Bitcoin will most likely adapt and survive. I'm also interested in seeing how this all plays out.
Thanks! It are very interesting times indeed and I'm glad to watch it all unfold.
Maybe for large purchases but I dont see it as electronic cash anytime soon.
I still learn towards it being a store of value more than a currency.
Maybe future upgrades will change that.
You think a debit card is a good way of using crypto-currencies for every day use?
It could be. The problem, as I see it, is that to be used as a currency, we can have the wild swings in price. BTC today is a prime example. If you bought something at 8, it was priced much differently than at noon. The price shot up so much percentage wise that the pricing would have had a major impact on either the buyer or seller (or both).
Steemit seems to have done it a bit better by pegging the currency to the USD so at least the swings in the power isnt that great. Of course the steem itself could go through wild swings.
I think that in case of a debit card it's not that big of an issue, you buy a product with a crypto, the seller receives fiat-currency. The holder of the card obviously wants to spend crypto even though the price might go up right after he spent them.
In my opinion it's better to change all fiat you are going to spend anyway into crypto, put them in debit-card wallet, after a month or so you will already buy more with it then if you would have kept it in fiat.
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After segwit the the transaction cost is not decreased.