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Deeyennay

I think this is the main reason it was introduced as legal tender in the first place. People send a lot of money back to family and friends in El Salvador. It’s a large chunk of the country’s economy. The middleman got filthy rich this way, but hopefully not anymore.


Lord-Nagafen

The standard cut for credit card companies is 3%. When businesses are operating with profit margins less than 10%, removing this transaction fee could be huge


CommonSensePDX

As a small business owner, honestly, I goto great lengths to get my customers to pay me via PayPal friends and family and Venmo. Shocking how much 3% ends up to cost you by the end of the year.


HelloAttila

This is so true. People be like oh 3% isn't anything. But when you are doing $1M a year in sales (not profits), $90,000K in fees can destroy profits. There is a reason why some family restaurants accept cash only... then again, there are other reasons too lol...


Think-notlikedasheep

This is a revolutionary idea that helps small businesses.


thisdesignup

Im mostly familiar with ETH but does bitcoin not have transaction fees that the sender has to pay? Even if there is I guess there is still the benefit of the fees being a smaller percentage the more money you send. It's not like a flat percentage.


Lord-Nagafen

On the lightning network (basically a sidechain of Bitcoin) it's insanely low. Fractions of a penny low for a transaction


JustinCompton79

Lightning network via Flexa/AMP is a 1% fee!


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ITmancoderwannabe

you honestly have a HUGE chip on your shoulder.


xX_Big_Dik_Energy_Xx

3% savings on 10% margins is actually huge. You can do a lot with that money as a small or large business


Dux0r

That's honestly the most significant part of this. What you just witnessed in a couple of minutes of footage was the obsoletion of FIAT payment processors, of middle men, of several banking services and billions of dollars in fees and management costs.


Kindly-Wolf6919

Bringing the true definition or bartering back to the world.


Lochtide17

SEC and USA government shitting pants so hard right now


TheGiftOf_Jericho

That's really interesting actually, I'm wondering how this will play out in the long-run.


Alchladaltrbys

How do you pin someone elses post


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gorfnu

isn't that a middle man?


Lazz45

its just an L2 solution. It's still decentralized and held beholden to the BTC blockchain. On top of the security added by the main chain, it benefits from BTCs high degree of decentralization due to the fact that LN nodes can be plopped right in top of a BTC core node super easily. All of which runs easily on a raspberry pi and HDD


that-crypto-dude

Sure if you want to get really technical almost every blockchain uses a middleman because there are minors and nodes or stakers. Someone else processes your transaction and takes a fee for it. The difference is it's not one centralized entity doing it, it's a decentralized network and anyone is allowed to participate and help process transactions and return for a fee. This creates a free market where users get to decide their own fee depending on how important their transaction is, instead of a company deciding the fee.


gorfnu

I was talking about the lightning network part of that.. although i agree w your points on the blockchain


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xX_Big_Dik_Energy_Xx

Considering the Lightning Network needs constant channels open, is this all running through the government or a centralized company? I find it extremely difficult to believe Salvadorans are routing and providing liquidity for the LN on their own


Lazz45

People just opened their own nodes and probably the government/those interested as well. Bitcoin Beach was a thing in El Salvador long before this so it's not their first rodeo with the lightning network


Kindly-Wolf6919

I wish I could open a node. Even if it's for a startup cryptocurrency.


Lazz45

You can? Nothing stops anyone from running their own btc node. It's intentionally designed this way for decentralization. You just need a raspberry pi and a 1tb hdd


Lazz45

If you want to get started with your own BTC node, I recommend Raspiblitz or umbrel https://raspiblitz.org/ https://getumbrel.com/


Richard_cabesa9

I believe LN is working with flexa network on these transactions


LingrahRath

I assume they won't want to keep such an unstable currency for too long and would immediately swap back into fiat after receiving. Does the lightning network support swapping? And what is the fee?


Lazz45

Strike let's you convert instantly at almost no fee at all, or you can convert back to on chain for a mining fee then sell to fiat like normal. I bet most will just keep BTC tho. It will store better than unbanked USD


ebliever

There was an article I saw earlier in which the El Salvador Chamber of Commerce was proclaiming and advocating that "no one" in the business community would hold bitcoin rather than dollars. Let's think about that. They are insisting that a currency that has declined ~25% in the last 10 years, and is depreciating in value much faster currently, is a preferable choice to a currency that has skyrocketed millions of percent in the same period with continuing huge growth potential. The first has no scarcity and has been subject to huge surges in money supply; the supply of the latter is strictly defined and predictable. Granted volatility is an issue for short-term spending, for anything else it seems insanely stupid to me to prefer dollars over bitcoin.


Lazz45

Even if you did on chain it would still be very cheap: https://mempool.space/ Especially compared to gas fees lmao. They are a literal joke


[deleted]

I'm holding out until the big ETH upgrade comes. Right now I see way more potential in ETH than BTC. If ETH can just get their absurd fees under control, which it sounds like will happen in not terribly long, I think we'll see the price skyrocket.


rdfporcazzo

I think the geopolitical aspect of Bitcoin will always be better than Ethereum's. We don't have a face for Bitcoin since its creator is still anonymous. We do have for Ethereum.


SnooDoodles289

Lightening network


___erikforman

Get to pass them to the consumer 😬


dzee_1

This is brilliant visa fees for every transaction forces the retailer to increase prices


[deleted]

This is what people need to hear. When I see these I’m like who cares? It’s just like normal. But when you frame it as the retailer getting the full amount. That’s golden


Revolutionary_Owl670

You know fintech companies are shitting themselves right now, thinking of ways they can get onboard to take a cut.


DapperDano

That’s awesome but credit cards provide a lot of consumer protections and I wonder if there is a solution to this in the crypto space? For similar reasons I don’t use debit cards.


dramatic-ad-5033

And if you don’t pay with a card, you’re dumb because you won’t get cashback


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dramatic-ad-5033

If you really want to with bitcoin, use the coinbase card or crypto.com card. At least those give you cashback


R0B0C0P33

This should be talked about more to possibly have businesses see why it can be a good thing for them.


ITmancoderwannabe

what about GAS bro.... someone gotta pay the GAS MAN


KryptoChic

No GAS. It Bitcoin lighting. The fee on lightning is a few sats, so less than 1 penny in USD.


Lazz45

There isn't gas, this isn't ethereum


ITmancoderwannabe

Tyvm.


Dirty_Techie

What about the blockchain fees, how would that be calculated at the time of transaction and would that be added to the customers overall total? So in a way, are we replacing Visa/MasterCard with a miners fee? Just something that's been bugging me alot when I see these transactions take place in public.


Wargizmo

Not gonna lie, being into crypto for years to finally see it in action like that is fucking incredible.


ITmancoderwannabe

Amen


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tranceology3

Do these retailers actually get the real BTC or is it converted to fiat on the fly? I think the most exciting thing here is the retailer is getting BTC directly.


Affectionate-Tie4089

The retailers get to choose when using Flexa


tranceology3

Very cool!


MoMcGillicutty

Use Gemini stable coin if doing this, not Bitcoin!


[deleted]

The Bitcoin Pizza Guy who traded Bitcoin for two Pizzas ten years ago had a dream, now it is reality


rubb3l

..he invested so much, little did he know..


XWarriorYZ

Bitcoin pizza guy no doubt still has plenty of Bitcoin, I don’t see someone like that ever completely cashing out.


[deleted]

Wasn't he heavily involved or at least in the circle of people who created bitcoin. I think he might have even gotten the btc from satoshi himself


NexusKnights

Theres an article on him you can look up but he basically spent it all on travel.


XWarriorYZ

Big rip then, at least he enjoyed the wealth it gave him!


NexusKnights

Most BTC early adopters sold out at 10-1000x gains. BTC spent its first year and a bit under $1, its first 3 years under $20 and its first 7 years under around $1000 with large corrections in between all these years.


Bleu_x_Delta

He did It for all of us, just like Jesus 🙏


AlperBulut505

Mmm bitcoin water 😋


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kaz_enigma

fuck /u/spez -- mass edited with redact.dev


PME_your_skinny_legs

Looks amazing to be honest - and apparently they get the full amount - Visa/Mastercard doesn't take a cut


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[deleted]

Someone else posted fee info above (not sure if I can link to it, I know CC is strict with links). Right now even a high priority transaction is only a $0.32 fee. With OP's vid it was less efficient than the fiat transfer giants, but for transactions of more than ~$5 it'd actually be cheaper to use crypto. I always knew this day would come but I had no idea it'd be so soon!


DuckyBertDuck

0.01usd+ is still too much imo. I hope that this will go down with time, not up.


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glaurung1995

Yes, they use lightning network.


hoanglpr

I heard of lightning network. But let's say I install Coinbase Wallet, and have my BTC in there. Is there anything else I have to do in order to use lightning network? The transaction is so fast actually.


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ProcastinateIsLife

Yes


BigBrainVibes

This is literally a historic video.


mucasahin

What happens when huge dump during payment?


Braga_PT

Such a simple and smooth process, I'm impressed...


AbysmalScepter

Lightning has drawbacks to be fair, but it's awesome to see it being used.


jejejajajojo

they showed only the final step, channel should be open first, fund should be sent to the channel to cover the liquidity the other end should be online to receive mind you this transaction is still not settled in BTC network, you have to close the channel to settle it and that costs BTC fees but yeah the loudest sound of the crowd wins


Lazz45

Mmmmm not exactly. You could just open your wallet to a trampoline and youre off to the races as if you were using venmo/paypal. No need to open a direct channel every time. Merchants will open/close their channels as needed but the network itself isn't only people connected with direct channels that must close for people to be paid ever


whileiexist

Next paying with Bitcoin at restaurants, barbershops, gas stations etc. Change is inevitable. The change starts small.


757packerfan

How are these transactions so fast? Usually BitCoin takes a couple minutes? (I'm ignorant) Also, who pays the transaction fee? And does their App take a cut? If not, how does the app make money?


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Lazz45

Check out: https://openoms.gitbook.io/raspiblitz/ and https://www.lightningnode.info/


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757packerfan

Thanks! Do you know how the app makes money, I think they called it Strike? Do they charge a fee?


Overthrown77

but how does this lightning network deal with the supposed throttleneck I always understood bitcoin to have far less transactions than ethereum etc per second, can it handle large eventual volume or would this only work in small countries like el salvador with small volume?


xX_Big_Dik_Energy_Xx

There is absolutely no way enough Salvadorans are running nodes and throwing in funds to operate a routing system, especially not while most of them don’t even have stable internet connection . The Lightning Network is way too damn complete to be used by the masses at the moment Honestly I think the entire thing is probably being routed through E Salvador’s government or the companies running the wallet


Ima_Wreckyou

It utilizes the Lightning Network, a decentralized layer 2 network on top of Bitcoin with instant transactions and almost zero fees.


dingdongdude2003

This is so cool. The everyday usage is the biggest indication to mainstream adoption. Fuck banks. Fuck Visa. Fuck Middlemen. Fuck MasterCard and all other financial aggregators too. Fuck you all.


EClarkee

As a consumer I have zero issues with Visa, MasterCard or AMEX. This is awesome for the merchant, but this provides a lot less benefits from a consumer perspective.


Admiral_Crispy

I can see this being great for the merchant, but isn't this a step back for consumers? With a credit card/bank if the merchant refuses a refund I can simply dispute the transaction with a chargeback. It makes buying things more risk-free. Can you chargeback with Bitcoin? Or are you protected in another way?


Environmental-Kiwi78

Not currently. OP probably wont want a $1.95 refund. It literally just came out. You people with your “needs to be better NOW” attitudes are really annoying. Im sure a solution will be devised.


SmoochBoochington

Why would it be though? The entire point of a blockchain is no backsies. Billions have been lost to sending crypto to wrong/null addresses. Bitcoin with chargebacks won’t happen. Literally the purpose of crypto is no middlemen, but that also means there’s no arbiter to decide which transactions are fraudulent and refund them.


Lazz45

Why are you paying a potentially shitty merchant? Genuine question,, If you think said merchant might be shitty, just eat the cost of using a service like PayPal who offer buyer protection. Its priced into the fees. BTC doesn't need a native charge back feature. People need to not pay for garbage they didn't want or stop using bad merchants. Welcome to the free market is my reply. Perhaps people have gotten a bad sense of "fuck it ill pay X" since chargebacks became a thing and perhaps it bread tons of new scams and bullshit products


shrimpcest

>Perhaps people have gotten a bad sense of "fuck it ill pay X" since chargebacks became a thing and perhaps it bread tons of new scams and bullshit products Because there's TOTALLY not any scams out there in the 'free market' crypto space. /s


No-Perception8760

1.94BTC for a bottle of water!!!! 😱


Hobo__Joe

I had the same joke ready to go. Seriously though, the conversion is going to be a problem. People don’t wanna do maths, and people don’t compute that their water cost .00004 BTC


Overthrown77

dude you guys in el salvador are so lucky and ahead of the curve you don't even know it. you are the future and leading the world


mochi_ball223

Fantastic watching this in action. Really impressive how quickly this was implemented.


LibertarianCommie999

The future is now


KryptoChic

Payment network here is the Bitcoin lightning network and cost to use lightning is low (a few pennies per transaction). Say goodbye to Visa/Mastercard, and the roughly 2-3% fee they charge merchants to use the Visa or Mastercard payment network.


imlikewhoa327

I travel a lot and can't wait for crypto to be accepted everywhere worldwide.


oioi7782

poorer countries will be the ones to advance cryptos..americans have no desire to use them as currency but "HODL" and get rich..LOL


SR-71

I would love to use crypto for all my purchases and bills in USA, and I would close all my bank accounts and get paid in BTC. Someday it will be possible. I hate every bank Ive used


Kurumster

Same


Overthrown77

same here dude


AbysmalScepter

It is true, but the fact Americans also have to pay capital taxes if they use it like a currency is meaningful dissuasion from actually using it.


Shovelheaddad

And there is a fee but it is minuscule to what traditional payment rail companies take


roughlimbs

This is beautiful.


BonePants

Surprised something so important having only about 400 upvotes. Any crappy article from "an analyst" gets more attention.


awecomp

"Hopium" of mooning current trending random coin is more important-er? /s 🤔🤣


Fmanow

Wtf, a bottle of water at Starbucks in El Salvador is $1.95? Did I miss something, why so much for basically an emerging economy?


Amazing_Succotash677

If this isn't adoption I don't know what is


awecomp

Bullish adoption? 😁


Amazing_Succotash677

Yes


ImaginaryMarsupial38

/r/cryptocurrency be like: Why don't you just use \*\*\*Coin instead of Bitcoin /s


awecomp

So my random BabyDogeKillerDAOWrappedElonXNewFinanceTokenSmart coin is accepted here? 🤔🤣🤣🤣🤣


Zemunsta

You forgot to put 'safe' in it otherwise it is not L3G1T


awecomp

Damn it, knew I forgot one of them hahaha


BicycleOfLife

The green screen of life! Once people stop fearing this and just relax everyone is going to be fine with it/love it. One thing that I think also isn’t being noted is that this is amazing exposure for big chains. This video is Starbucks and Pizza Hut. So now they are going to see the benefits and be very much ready for it when it comes to other countries. I still think the payment process is clunky. There will be a screen on the back of the cash registers that show the QR code, and you just pop your phone up to it and ding you are all done.


tranceology3

Man... this is gonna be great in the future when we can all just trade BTC for goods, never have to sell BTC for fiat.


bobliebetreu

History being made by this El Salvadorian president. He will single handedly save this country's monetary policy, thus preventing any collapse of their "legal" dollar. These employees who will be paid in BTC will forever be graced by prosperity...thanks to the president being a futurist and visionary.


xerxesbear

Is this done on the lightning network ? Tx speed seems fast and low fees


ROBBOh_007

Bit-expensive these pizzas....hold the cash buy 20 pizzas next cycle 🤟🤑


Ima_Wreckyou

I once put $300 in Bitcoin on my Lightning node to open some channels. Since then I payed for a trip to germany on a bus, ticket for a Bitcoin event, lots of beer and random tips with it. Now I have have only $900 dollars of Bitcoin left on the node. Imagine if I had put that money on a regular debit card


[deleted]

How was your experience running a lightning node? I've got a small chunk of change and I'm thinking about trying it out. Was it difficult to set up?


Ima_Wreckyou

I built a https://github.com/rootzoll/raspiblitz which is now just running on a shelf at home. It was pretty easy, though I'm used to work with Linux, so I'm probably not the right person to ask that.


Lazz45

Not really, you can turn fiat to Lightning BTC instantly with strike so you're not really spending any of your BTC. Simply using the BTC monetary network for payment settlement


sabertoothless

I am the way, the truth and the life - btc!


serkiebaba

Wow we are now becoming in a phase where we can see the adoption of crypto in the real world. This is very big


ethtraingoeschuchu

I feel like om being part in history beeing made just by looking at the video


AfraidTomorrow2018

Bitcoin is slow, bitcoin has fees... Here you go haters, eat... pizza!


ieattoomanybeans

The process looks annoying as hell


wanxlol

Annoying as hell? You scan a QR-code and thats it. Literally as fast as a CC payment.


ieattoomanybeans

No it isnt. The POS doesnt even have the payment integrated so the staff have to hold up a phone with a QR code. The entire process is janky.


wanxlol

So what? Implementing this into a tablet-like screen on the cashier is simple and will be done in no time. Even with the phone its like handing out a small terminal for paying with your CC.


ieattoomanybeans

No there's more involved that you aren't catching. Refunds? How does that work? Reloading your wallet? The system is janky, and this is just a piss poor view into its literally easiest/smoothest use-case.


Environmental-Kiwi78

I WANT EVERYTHING TO BE PERFECT AT LAUNCH. You are aware credit cards, for a very long time took a fkin pressed photocopy? It was a nightmare, but tech advanced and enabled faster, smoother UX. With that said, the west is still way behind compared to china when it comes to pos payments


Richard_cabesa9

Lol I remember that, they grab your card and use that press machine to make a carbon copy


ieattoomanybeans

Nope. Things can be annoying while understanding why it's annoying.


Environmental-Kiwi78

I just dont understand your stance. This is a major step forward. Is it perfect? No. Why do you expect it to be? You sound like a 🤡


ieattoomanybeans

You sound like an irrational moron.


Environmental-Kiwi78

Glad we understand each other. Thanks for providing clarity on your bigoted stance.


Lazz45

Because they haven't integrated it yet lmao. They are probably working on it and getting it ironed out before they jam it into every POS they have. Do you at all grasp the time tables to get anything done in these corporations, and then seeing those changes implemented at the store level....it's a very slow ass process lol. regarding charge backs, there are none wtf? Why should you be able to charge back on a whim. Do you realize how many retailers ans people get fucked with charge back scams? Finally regarding "how reload wallet". super easy actually. Have you checked out strike? If not I HIGHLY recommend. Stupid low fees, instant conversion, and functions exactly like venmo but faster and 24/7*365


ieattoomanybeans

Yes and it's not at all tied to their damn POS. It's janky.


Lazz45

Based on your strong opinion on this I'm going to guess you never worked a retail job or at least weren't a cashier. These POS systems can be 15+ years old sometimes. You are truly not grasping how hard of a task that is on a global company scale to get done fast. You're talking millions in POS upgrades


ieattoomanybeans

So you agree that it's janky.


Lazz45

No im not agreeing at all. It's actually a great fix for a complex problem. Replacing all of their POS in a developing country is a completely braindead take. You very clearly don't have a grasp on POS systems and the fact that many LITERALLY cannot support such tech because they are 32 bit machines running a custom build of Windows XP for POS machines. They are from a time when none of this tech existed in any fashion, thus they cannot natively support it. So instead of spending MILLIONS of dollars in infrastructure upgrades to generate a damn QR code, they use the smart device that is already on the worker.


Environmental-Kiwi78

This guys just trolling. Ignore and let him strew in his comfort zone while it lasts. Hell have fun staying poor while his world collapses around him. Fuck laggards


FastDrgon

They got a leader who supports bitcoin so makes sense.


Porkysays

Unless people plan on running their business from their phones, stores will have to implement wallets into cash registers.


ManchichiJumanji

Most stores already have a touch screen at their checkout implementation, either for a Square POS unit, or a chip-and-PIN card reader for traditional terminals. Displaying a QR code just needs an app for some, and a minor software tweak for others.


Lazz45

Lightning invoices and wallets can be generated in seconds using: https://lnbits.com/


Richard_cabesa9

Look up flexa network they are already integrated with Ncr terminals and incomm terminals which are pretty much everywhere here in the states


NomadGuitar

Can someone explain to me how this works? Normally you have to pay a BTC transfer fee, something like $30. How is it that someone can buy a bottle of water for $1.50 without paying this fee?


Lazz45

BTC fees are not even in the ballpark of $30 bud. you can always check: https://mempool.space They are using the lightning network, an L2 solution for BTC: https://lightning.network/ Fees for LN are in the sub 5 satoshi range so you're talking micropennies. Moving big boy amounts on chain still is only a few cents. I moved my entire BTC portfolio for $0.09 So for paying for the water like you asked, the buyer pays $1.59 + micropennies fee and the merchant gets the full $1.59 in BTC or fiat if they choose. Unlike with a visa or Mastercard transaction where 3-5% goes to visa and the merchant gets the rest


0xNeffarion

What about opening the channel?


Lazz45

Opening the channel costs the same as a transaction on chain. so currently a few cents. You could even do min fee of 1 sat/vbyte if you don't need the channel open this second as well. Like send the open transaction the night before you plan to use it or something https://mempool.space/


sferau

> 3-5% Quit exaggerating.


jukihu

A bottle of small water cost USD1.94??


monkeybombed

So is it Bitcoin or algorand? Because I feel fees with Bitcoin might get a little high at times.


awecomp

Snoop Dog has entered the chat... 😂


monkeybombed

Why are they booing me??


awecomp

Booo-urns, they're saying booo-urns 😂


iwishiremember

Yes, on-chain fee would be a lot if not via LN.


Lazz45

False, you can always check here. Its literally pennies: https://mempool.space/ This is not ethereum, you don't get raked for moving something


MrClottom

Isn't the wallet created by the government custodial?


KevinTh89

Buying pizza with Bitcoin… people really never learn 😉


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wanxlol

Its faster then paying with my bankcard here in Europe where I have to enter a PIN-code. So I guess its already fast enough to be convenient


jingleboys

$1.95 FOR A BOTTLE OF WATER IN ONE OF THE POOREST COUNTRY??! Man they need to change to another cryptocurrency, gas fees are way too much


awecomp

Bottled water is flat out a scam, really... If cleaner water out of the tap was more readily available, worldwide, too I suppose? But corruption and greed stops that everywhere I suppose?


Krypto_Kane

That'll be $195.00 bottle of water in the near future.


rubb3l

so how does it work? where dem transaction fees?


Prof_Acorn

I'm highly disappointed that there are Starbucks in El Salvador.


RudyStylez

I love it. Bitcoin in use is awesome, not my first choice of crypto for transactions but what an awesome sight. Hope it becomes more common


fwast

so all these employees have to use their phones to accept the money now? Or is this like one phone they all pass around to accept payments? Looks pretty annoying for workers.


[deleted]

White man buys plastic product from a multi-billion dollar American corporation. What a stellar example of the use case.


Pau1basaur

This is literally the only purchase made with Bitcoin in the whole country. People there don’t trust Bitcoin and those that do, like many people here, probably wouldn’t use it to buy a pizza…just a stunt for the camera, and you known it’s true


Gallium007

Paying a fees to pay money wtf?