Urbandreamer wrote:GoSeigen wrote:I'm so categorical about it simply because bitcoin cannot handle the volume of transactions required. At 300,000 transactions per day it would barely support the commerce of a single medium sized town like Bolton or Brighton. How could anyone but the most delusional supporter think it would manage as any sort or currency? Quite apart from the fact that not a single person would accept a 15 minute wait in their local shop for their grocery payment to clear. The idea that bitcoin will replace credit or debit card transactions is nonsense.
GS
I thought that we had dealt with that. Gold also can't handle that level of transactions, which is of course why gold was never used as a currency......
Historically the solution has always been what is now know as a 2'ed level transaction system. In the days of gold you passed a piece of paper with a written (trusted) promise. If you happen to use UK £'s dig out a £10 note and look at it. Doesn't is say "I promise to...."
Why do you think that it says that? Better yet if you live in Scotland, do the same and check who made that promise (it wasn't the BOE).
Of course you may not have a £10 note, even if UK based. You may chose to use Visa, Mastercard, ApplePay et-al. When you use them are you making a transaction in real £'s or simply denominated in £'s or $'s or what the merchant accepts? I could swear that it's possible to use them to buy stuff priced in $'s or €'s.
They work really well. It takes seconds to transact, just like the seconds it takes using the lightning network.
For those who don't know (I actually think that GS may have read an explanation of this). Lightning aggregates transactions before updating the bitcoin ledger., if bitcoin is the currency. Lightning will actually deal with other currencies, it is just mostly used to transact in bitcoin.
In truth Visa could allow bitcoin transactions, aggregating and settling transactions. There is some question if the bitcoin community would chose it over lightning, unless there was a good use case. There actually is a use case though and some do use it for this. Again, I thought that I'd made GS aware of the fact. Bitcoin debit cards exist. You fund them with bitcoin and the Visa payment layer is used for transactions in £'s and €'s.
Ps, I can't comment about how likely it is that local shops in the UK will accept bitcoin in the future, however apparently "Bitcoin accepted here" was seen in some London pubs back in 2013. I would accept in the argument that the term "local shops" was meant to imply something very different, but I think that the argument is now being used to imply something beyond that by some.
All the above ignores my point about BC/Sterling volatility being a deal breaker if I were a "local shopkeeper" considering accepting BC.
Until both my suppliers and my employees all willingly accept BC in payment, I wouldn't accept BC as payment from my customers.