I feel like there are people today who have a Venmo account with a small balance that they pay back and forth to others with. If the balance gets big, they transfer back to a bank account. If small, they can add from the bank. While I know we have the potential to do things radically different, I think people will feel comfortable with experiences similar to what they know today. I’d love to use ecash the way I use Venmo- and someday I think I will. I take your point on getting back to fiat money- like, could I take a $20 bill from a fiend and send them equivalent ecash? Then, if they want out, they could send me the ecash for whatever that currency is? Imagine a scenario where I get farm products once a week, and distribute to friends and family. Some use cash, others Apple Pay, others Venmo, others Zelle. They want to give me between $6 and $50 per week, depending on orders. I’m open to suggestions- and appreciate the discussion.
Discussion
Agreed. Venmo is what people recognize and the experience they are after. In that way, Strike still offers the best experience and do it right, imo.
They onboard, and offboard in seamless fashion. They're a Bitcoin company but the focus is on the payment rail, not so much the Bitcoin itself. They offer the ability to hold cash or BTC and seamlessly transfer back to the home bank. They're a bridge. For me, that's what we're missing.
You just can't touch the traditinal banking rail without getting tied up in KYC. That's what most here are looking to avoid. There's just very few ways to do it. Atomic swaps are one thing, but it's expensive. That's for fanatics. It's possible, but that's a hard sell for most. Strike did the regulatory work in that arena and take the cake as far as I'm concerned.
Zeus offers a great solution by making the phone the node and instant 0 config channel to Olympus. Highly underrated.
Until things are priced in sats, people don't seem to have interest in using the Bitcoin network as their bank. Right now, it's still a speculative asset.
Idk. For a small circular economy, lnbits is the easiest to set up and transact fairly private. Ecash is an upgrade from that.
Hopefully others chime in.