It could be suggested that a trust based intermediary processor will be required in order to reduce transaction latency. When a third party is put in to the mix they handle instant transfers from account balance to account balance, and it opens the door to competing services with lower fees. If using blockchain only, there is the microtransaction problem, the safety problems of being under non trusted network control, and confirmation times to deal with. Imagine if putting gas in your car required a 6 hours confirmation because a block wasn't found quickly?
Perhaps worth discussion.
Yes, you have done a very good job of concisely identifying one of the fundamental sets of choices with crypto in general. The possibility exists that we could cut a LOT of fat out of the system by eliminating current fees. I remember reading (and sorry, I can't source it) that the CEO of Overstock said that they save 8% when people use BTC. Works fine for a purchase online, but the gas pump is a different world. Six hours to confirm just doesn't work in that situation.
Cryptographic currency offers multiple benefits but also has limitations. For example we can store and manage our own money, send unlimited amounts to anybody without any barriers, and with minimal fees, often large transactions are faster than legacy systems. Conversely it is relatively clunky and slow for every day transactions, it cannot be sped up, and the interfaces for usage with legacy wide spread systems do not exist.
We have choices to make, do we try to come up with new things and replace what exists, or do we try hard to become part of what exists recognising that it is not an omnipotent solution to everything money related?
Within Bitmark we have named a concept
micro-trust. The game provider Steam is a concrete example, we deposit funds through some methods then perform purchases instantly. Prepaid debit cards, credit cards, paypal, skrill, multiple services and many stores, giftcards and loadable credit, all of these things are examples of micro trust. The important thing to note is that we do not trust these services and companies with all of our money, only small amounts for whatever purpose we need. Micro trust for micro transactions.
We consider that the blockchain is great to store larger amounts, and to transfer funds between services. The latter point is where it can really shine.
To be usable however, for every transactions, we must become part of what exists. We will get nowhere fast if we try to get a Gas company, a gas franchise, or even a franchisee to accept our highly latent systems which require them to jump through hoops and change their infrastructure.
Back to your litmus test, consider a reloadable debit card that you could fill with daily use money from time to time quickly by depositing crypto. It's a simple solution enabled by the presence of just one service provider, made optimal by the presence of many.
As for fees, because crypto is entirely digital and isn't integrated in with heavy fee taking legacy systems, new lean startups can be created, or older companies can adopt and save money behind the scenes. 0.25% to an exchange for the conversion, and 0.75% on deposits to us to pay for the service, on currencies which change 10x that in a day and 100x that in a year, is a minor concession to make.
Where Bitmark and Marking come in, is that we enable the flow of money between people for the smallest of every day things, you can write a post or share something online and get reputation+money for it. Now imagine if the money you deposited to your daily use card, had been earned by two forum posts, a commit of some code, and a funny video shared on line? Does that not change the way money flows and the way we think of things quite a lot?
An additional point, is that we suggest crypto should be hidden through several layers of abstraction, if you can transfer money by clicking a button on a website, swap between services by linking accounts, and fill a debit card by hitting 'deposit' on-line or in an app, then why not? Blockchain and clients and daemons all still exist, they just become optional usage parts rather than required. It's perfectly feasible for people to only want to keep 25% of their weekly loose change in crypto and use it by clicking buttons, rather than 100% of their lifes savings stored in multi-secured extravagant cold storage.
None of this is exact or well defined or anything of the sort, but if you can follow the principles, and indeed agree it has some merit, then please do join in with ideas and discussion to make them reality.
