Comment by Zuiii
2 years ago
I hope this attack becomes more popular. I truly do.
Maybe these attacks will finally force regulators to do something about the financial parasites we call "payment processors". Any payment processing system that doesn't act like a public utility is broken and needs fixing.
I think the only digital payment system that comes close to acting like a utility right now is cryptocurrecny which is a sad, sad state of affairs.
OP: While not a complete solution, you might be able to partially mitigate this by allowing customers to pay you in other forms (e.g aforementioned cryptocurrency, bank transfers). That's what the porn industry and other legal businesses end up doing when they inevitably find themselves in your position.
If your customers want your product badly enough, a small fraction of them will learn how to use these payment methods. You'll have to learn to survive on those alone.
Pix, the Brazilian payment system, is basically a utility, and payers authorize the payment rather than the payee. It has very little friction, everyone uses it. It does require working internet.
I feel that Algorand (I'm not a holder anymore) was positioned to work as such but would require all the parts to make it successful. The 0.001 ALGO transaction fee cuts down on silly transactions while making 0.1 ALGO transactions possible. It also allows trading in stablecoins or CBDCs as they are enabled. It can complete transactions in milliseconds and moderately-sized participants can easily help maintain the whole network. It never gained traction, however, probably because it isn't a good HODL.
Why is it sad? I truly don’t get it, people on HN will say they are somewhat libertarian, pro decentralization, anti corporate oligopolies, but then use their dying breath to say “crypto has no use case”. Yet while AI took nearly 70 years to find its footing, in just 10 years crypto (currencies) has already found inroads into many areas as a nascent technology that has massive potential to solve some of our biggest problems.
I truly think it’s one of those cases where the “wrong/dumb” people jumped onto it (alongside scammers) and so it became poisoned to the right/smart ones. But we should be way better than that! Is it really so hard for people to separate good from bad?
It absolutely bowls me over to see this lack of ability to discuss it carefully around here so consistently. So many potential amazing conversations totally shunted by the absolute need to turn it tribal.
> Is it really so hard for people to separate good from bad?
If you mean "HN people", then probably no; but if you mean more generalized "people", then definitely yes. Unfortunately, your customers are much more likely from the latter group.
Also, being in a sad state doesn't really mean it "has no use case", right?
Not understanding what you're saying here. If anything HN has less able to separate good from bad at least on this topic imo, and I wasn't claiming the direct parent posted said exactly it has no use case, but still even that they had to couch any slight mention of utility with being a "sad, sad state" implies they don't like it and know it isn't liked here.