Quote from: midnightlightning on March 25, 2013, 11:12:11 AM

If "any webserver" could get this software installed on it, then in theory every merchant has their own instance, which allows for decentralization, right? I've been suggesting modifying the POS devices, since they already have to be internet-connected (to process the credit card transactions), and most merchants already have one. For a merchant that's changing over to using an iPad for checkout (like Square encourages), or smaller mobile device (like Apple stores do), just having some webserver out there able to be contacted by those check-out devices would work swell.

I must admit that I'm still struggling to understand the use case.

Life is complex enough for merchants as it is... the idea of implementing a parallel infrastructure for BTC, with its own idiosyncracies, qualities of service, staff training needs, consumer education, etc., strikes me as entirely unrealistic.

As discussed above, consumers already have the ability to *spend* using any currency they like (a GBP credit card works just fine for EUR purchases in Europe) so allowing consumers to *spend* using BTC would just require an issuer to support it and, perhaps for teh Visa/MC network to add support. This is clearly feasible: the Euro's introduction showed new currencies could be added and we can be sure the banks/networks have planned for its disintegration and the introduction of multiple successor currencies.

From a security/safety perspective, a BTC credit card would not have to be linked to anybody's wallet.... the user just needs to settle once a month using the BTC network or via an intermediary. Similarly, a BTC debit card would just need to be linked to a wallet with a modest balance.

Now, somebody mentioned above that merchants might also want to *accept* BTCs, to avoid conversion to/from existing currencies. I think that, too, is possible using the existing infrastructure... some merchants in tourist areas already allow consumers to select in which currency they pay (with the exchange rate often being unfavourable but that's another issue). Now this may well require changes to POS devices... but an update to an existing system is easier to consume and easier for staff to understand than introduction of an entirely new parallel infrastructure.

So... given that adding full support for BTC to the existing payments infrastructure is achievable without too much technical effort, it strikes me that effort would be best spent overcoming the non-technical objections/blockers, rather than investing effort reinventing technical solutions that don't seem to be needed.... am I missing something? Is the main problem that people don't like the fees imposed by Visa/MC? Dislike of the idea of an intermediary? (i.e. a vision that all BTC users in the future will transact directly across the Blockchain?) Something else?

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