Topic: Get ready for a sharp rise in Bitcoin use - page 2. (Read 3928 times)
It would only sharply increase BTC use if it was widely implemented, which won't happen as the marketing team of a given company has to determine the use of converting something to cash when they can just take cash instead. With such a fluctuating price, nobody would mass produce it as they don't want to jeopardize so much revenue when 99.999% of the customers will use cash anyway.
Green addresses could solve the instantaneous 0/unconfirmed transaction problem. If the customer has funds held with Bit-Pay, Insta-Wallet or any other trusted online wallet or escrow service, then the recipient business need not trust the customer any more than the wallet/escrow service.
Instawallet bitcoin transactions accepted here, but not MyBitcoin
This could confuse the bitcoin brand but does provide instantaneous trusted transactions.
Instawallet bitcoin transactions accepted here, but not MyBitcoin
This could confuse the bitcoin brand but does provide instantaneous trusted transactions.
I'm a Bitcoin fetishist, and even I wouldn't bother to use Bitcoin at a physical POS like this. What's the advantage over using a legacy currency?
I see plenty of reasons. Compared to credit cards it has lower fees and more anonymity.
Compared to Electron or Debit cards it offers significantly higher reliability, because the Bitcoin network is so decentralized. Compared to cash it doesn't offer that much except you don't have to have cash, or a wallet at all. Just need your phone.
I have credit on my debit card and can thus use it without electricity or a data connection.That's on top of the fact that Bitcoin is a great currency in itself and I'd buy with it if it's not worse than other payment methods. And with these enhancements such as bit-pay it certainly isn't worse.
Bitcoin is great on-line because it's remarkably efficient in dealing with arbitrary political borders. But the physical POSs will remain a niche for us enthusiast and will not be the cause of a "sharp rise in Bitcoin use". It'll be the other way around; if/when Bitcoin conquers cyberspace it'll be a hassle not to use BTC AFK. 
I'm a Bitcoin fetishist, and even I wouldn't bother to use Bitcoin at a physical POS like this. What's the advantage over using a legacy currency?
I see plenty of reasons. Compared to credit cards it has lower fees and more anonymity. Compared to Electron or Debit cards it offers significantly higher reliability, because the Bitcoin network is so decentralized. Compared to cash it doesn't offer that much except you don't have to have cash, or a wallet at all. Just need your phone.That's on top of the fact that Bitcoin is a great currency in itself and I'd buy with it if it's not worse than other payment methods. And with these enhancements such as bit-pay it certainly isn't worse.
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If I hack the client and broadcast a transaction from an empty wallet, wouldn't that also show up as 0 confirmations at first (exactly the same as it would with a regular transaction), until the next block is found? At that point in time I'd be long gone.
No it wouldn't - the receiving client would not accept the transaction, since it could not have contained a valid input. You would have to have the matching private key to an unspent output from a previous transaction in the blockchain to generate a valid transaction - but at that point your wallet would not have been empty anymore because you actually had the corresponding coins.Don't worry - counterfeiting Bitcoins is actually pretty damn hard
I'm a Bitcoin fetishist, and even I wouldn't bother to use Bitcoin at a physical POS like this. What's the advantage over using a legacy currency?
Because you don't need to have the legacy currency. Say you fly to a foreign country. Would be nice to be able to pay with bitcoins rather than exchanging for local currency or using your credit card and getting charged a nasty exchange fee.
I have made arrangements to do this when I visit Turkey this December. We are meeting at a cafe. I bring a laptop and he brings a bag of local cash.
I'm a Bitcoin fetishist, and even I wouldn't bother to use Bitcoin at a physical POS like this. What's the advantage over using a legacy currency?
Because you don't need to have the legacy currency. Say you fly to a foreign country. Would be nice to be able to pay with bitcoins rather than exchanging for local currency or using your credit card and getting charged a nasty exchange fee.
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Yes. Bit-Pay has two customers, one of which is owned by the people behind Bit-Pay. This is the other one.
So they've doubled their customer base in a short time
Bull up man, this is bound to go viral 
I'm a Bitcoin fetishist, and even I wouldn't bother to use Bitcoin at a physical POS like this. What's the advantage over using a legacy currency?
The transaction is easier.
You do not need to carry around your credit card (you do not even need your wallet if you have no need for ID).
Everyone carries their cell phones with them, even on the beach.
You could have POS sales anywhere that you have cell service (beach, farmer's market, craigslist transaction, etc.)
No handing your personal information and credit card info to a complete stranger.
Lower cost of goods due to lower transaction fees.
Doubt that, we've all heard it before.
Yes. Bit-Pay has two customers, one of which is owned by the people behind Bit-Pay. This is the other one. That looks sharp dude! I have always thought that the ability to pay via cellphone would be an important step in the bitcoin economy. Not only is it very handy for payments like the one in your video, imagine how the remittance market for foreign workers would adopt this. An easy wallet app may start millions of BTC/year flowing.
Not my video, the hard working folks at bit-pay are doing wonders for Bitcoin.
This comment was posted in error. Please delete.
....not to mention the main point of bicoin, avoiding inflation.
Bwahahah.
That looks sharp dude! I have always thought that the ability to pay via cellphone would be an important step in the bitcoin economy. Not only is it very handy for payments like the one in your video, imagine how the remittance market for foreign workers would adopt this. An easy wallet app may start millions of BTC/year flowing.
I'm a Bitcoin fetishist, and even I wouldn't bother to use Bitcoin at a physical POS like this. What's the advantage over using a legacy currency?
http://falkvinge.net/2011/07/03/bitcoins-four-drivers-part-3-merchant-trade/
Besides, that can allow you to pay less taxes, to improve your banking secrecy etc, not to mention the main point of bicoin, avoiding inflation.
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If I hack the client and broadcast a transaction from an empty wallet, wouldn't that also show up as 0 confirmations at first (exactly the same as it would with a regular transaction), until the next block is found? At that point in time I'd be long gone.
No it wouldn't - the receiving client would not accept the transaction, since it could not have contained a valid input. You would have to have the matching private key to an unspent output from a previous transaction in the blockchain to generate a valid transaction - but at that point your wallet would not have been empty anymore because you actually had the corresponding coins.Don't worry - counterfeiting Bitcoins is actually pretty damn hard
I thought it took about 10 minutes to fully verify a bitcoin transaction under normal conditions. Are these transfers mediated through some kind of escrow service?
Why it is very unlikely for someone to do a double spend at a POS purchase:
http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/1184/what-can-be-done-to-mitigate-the-risk-of-a-finney-attack/1189#1189
I'm a Bitcoin fetishist, and even I wouldn't bother to use Bitcoin at a physical POS like this. What's the advantage over using a legacy currency?
to cater to those customers who happen to only have btc on them, and no $
...it could happen... maybe later.
I'm a Bitcoin fetishist, and even I wouldn't bother to use Bitcoin at a physical POS like this. What's the advantage over using a legacy currency?
Purchasing a car or something for several thousand dollars might require them staying an extra 10 minutes to verify the transaction.
This is a good point. The time taken to verify should depend on the value of the item. With an expensive car I would certainly wait the whole 6 confirmations if I were a merchant, but if someone ordered a pizza or wanted a haircut, I wouldn't require any confirmations.Tell me if I have the wrong end of the stick. From what I have read this is where the transaction fees will come into play, and it is what will keep people 'mining' after all the coins are gone?
For a high value purchase such as a car, a very small % commission would translate to a reasonably large absolute commission (in terms of miner commissions) and so this should ensure the transaction is verified fairly quickly.
If it doesn't work like that then it should! Viva la capitalism and all that. Those that can pay, get stuff (e.g. quicker transactions!)
no, the transaction fee only has a slight correlation to the transaction amount.
it has more to do with how many inputs a transaction has, and hence how big it is in terms of storage space.
(eg. if you have one address with 1000 btc and you spend 1000 btc, then the tx fee should be low, but if you have 1000 addresses each with 1 btc, and you spend 1000 btc, then the tx fee would be much higher because it has to bundle a lot more data together for broadcast to the network)
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