Post
Topic
Board Development & Technical Discussion
Re: Tech details needed to give cryptocoins the benefits mandatory for true adoption
by
wheatstone
on 22/05/2013, 23:20:14 UTC
Inert, physical notes offer anonymity, higher adoption rate in the local physical world, instantly verified transactions, and reversibility of transactions.

The masses will have high demand for all these things in their money. These features are mandatory for true adoption, but do not exist in cryptocoins.

Perhaps the lack of response is due in part to the phrasing. I'm honestly not sure what "these features" are, that are supposedly mandatory. Are all 4 features really included? (if so, at least one is a logical fallacy). Additionally, you fail to present any arguments as to why these features are mandatory.

However, I'll bite Wink

Anonymity? Physical notes do not offer that, certainly not to the extent one can achieve with bitcoin.

Higher adoption in the local physical world? Logical fallacy / circular logic.

Instantly verified transactions? True, at least when the physical notes are "cash" and some expense is employed to detect counterfeits.

Reversibility of transactions? False. Credit card services offer asymmetric reversible transactions, but cash or notes do not. If you know who you handed your notes to, you can pretty please ask them for your money back. The exact same thing goes for bitcoin.

There are plenty of other aspects, however. If you look at retail today, debit and credit cards are increasingly popular (with claims of 50+ million purchases a day through Visa and MasterCard in the US alone). This payment form differs significantly from cash or notes, yet has a very high adoption rate, even in physical stores where cash or notes is actually an option.

Both credit cards and cash come with a relatively high expense for the payment recipient (although this cost is virtually always passed to the payer, if only indirectly). Cash needs to be secured and transported to a bank. Card processing fees vary greatly, with direct debit being the cheapest and "premium" credit cards the most expensive. Standard credit cards typical cost the merchant anywhere from 1.5% to 3%. Cash reportedly costs large retailers about 1% to handle (more then debit cards, less than credit cards).