Sorry CryptoGuy I didn't mean to sound harsh.
Have you ever played the game "Fallout"? Well, what we need, are PIPBOYS. Seriously, have you seen the commericial where some wack-future is presented to us, where we actually SWIPE a plastic card on a swiper that plugs into our tablet? Like, wut?
But then, tablets themselves, are 100% not designed at all with security in mind. That is because, security people are boring in meetings, sad to say. And people like me, when we see the security guy not talking in the meeting, we know the meeting is another corporate fellatio session for whomever is the manager de jour of that meeting. And, after the meeting, guys like me go up to the security guy, who is paid 3x what we are paid, and ask him why did you not say anything? And he will say "I did and they didn't listen. [shrug]"
So, in terms of what we REALLY need, I'd say we need Pipboys first of all. So, Raspberry Pi is of course the leading PipBoy platform, and yes, your excellent point about efficiency does matter there, indeed, because I want my PipBoy to be a wallet/transaction device, as well as a dosemeter. Does the Raspberry Pi have a rads detector yet? If not, let's build that first.
But yes, in terms of multiple reasons, you are right, efficiency does matter. But, adoption of the tech, has to be based on rock-solid security like think payphones type. Early cash registers were a hundreds-pounds vault with a giant lever and such. Nowadays, the newest NCR terminal, is some OS underneath like all the rest. Indeed, not one single bit of crypto has gone into 300+ years of cash register research. Until now.
Benjamin F. himself is with us, I can feel his common sense coming close to this thread as we ponder the costs of the future.
No worries. I'm thinking about it from the perspective of the business owner. If someone made a pitch to me and said I'd have to run this 400W cube that puts out all this heat, and oh yeah, you'll need this power supply hooked up to it too...
I wouldn't bother. Now if it was a sleek little machine that takes up a few inches of counter space and also accepts tips? That would be much more appealing than two boxes you have to hide in a closet or under the counter.
Edit: And it doesn't just have to be tips. If someone were to make a POS machine out of it where it can multi-functional and accept transactions, track purchases and support tips and whatnot, then you've got yourself something. I just don't see a business burning that much electricity for something that doesn't technically help their business. After all, transactions will still be validated by the rest of the network.
