I think you make an interesting point about micro payments.
Micro payments could be an avenue for crypto to actually achieve some legitimacy and usefulness.
Not only is the irreversibility less important, but potentially some of the usability/security issues for users (hacked/stolen wallets etc...) become less important as well (assuming users keep only smallish balances in crypto wallets).
> I think you make an interesting point about micro payments. Micro payments could be an avenue for crypto to actually achieve some legitimacy and usefulness.
I've been testing out the Lightning Network (Layer 2 of BTC) recently and it seems that the future has arrived. I can accept micropayments in BTC over LN, which get immediately converted to dollars and deposited to a bank account in USD. All for ~$0.01 fee per transaction. Here's how:
1.) Open an account at https://strike.me. This app is very similar to CashApp, but supports getting paid on the Lightning Network. I believe CashApp is also working on this functionality.
3.) Connect LNBits to Strike. (Note: there is an open PR for this, if you want to test then check out the PR on Github)
4.) Set up a Point of Sale (or paywall, or event tickets, or tip jar, or line-item invoices, or anything else) on LNBits.
5.) Collect a payment in LNBits.
6.) That BTC is immediately forwarded to Strike, converted to USD and available for withdrawal to your bank account.
Following these steps you can collect micropayments in USD for next-to-nothing fees and have no exposure to the volatility of BTC.
Your potential customers can hold their balance in USD as well, if they don't want to hold any crypto. They just deposit some USD into their Strike account to pay these micropayments.
Not only is the irreversibility less important, but potentially some of the usability/security issues for users (hacked/stolen wallets etc...) become less important as well (assuming users keep only smallish balances in crypto wallets).