So I am not really into cryptocurrency and only have some basic knowledge. As far as I understand the idea between crypto (or especially bitcoin) was a decentralized payment system. Everything I heard about crypto the last few years was only about trading and value going up and down blabla. How is it going so far for using it as a payment method? Are there countries, systems, spaces in the internet or anything that actually use crypto for paying? Whar are some good examples? Do you yourself use some of these?

And are there maybe even PayPal-like Apps which you can use for paying in crypto to others?

  • kbal@fedia.io
    7·
    19 hours ago

    It is super annoying, slow, and expensive to use as a payment method. I had some ETH from when they were giving it away in fairly substantial amounts to anyone with a GPU back in 2021. I managed to spend it, but it’s hard to imagine any big number of normal people going through that much hassle more than once. And that was before the software ecosystem got to be full of malware.

    We really really urgently need a better way to pay for stuff on the Internet. Somebody please make GNU Taler happen.

      • porcoesphino@mander.xyz
        2·
        17 hours ago

        I didn’t know either

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_Taler

        GNU Taler is a free software-based microtransaction and electronic payment system. Unlike most other decentralized payment systems, GNU Taler does not use a blockchain. A blind signature is used to protect the privacy of users as it prevents the exchange from knowing which coin it signed for which customer.

        In a paper published in Security, Privacy, and Applied Cryptography Engineering, GNU Taler is described as meeting ethical considerations – the paying customer is anonymous while the merchant is identified and taxable

        Their cooperation with the Swiss National Bank have resulted multiple papers on the relation of conventional national banks and electronic money, the privacy implications and various financial viability factors. There was also various papers about real-life problems and their handling by Taler, like anonymous age verification, relations to Central Banks and the Euro or using One-Time Passcodes.

      • kbal@fedia.io
        21·
        19 hours ago

        It’s a better way to pay for stuff on the Internet, but it’s not widely available yet.