Bakkt Cash Payment?

[Bttzed03]

There were many talks about how Bitcoin is not suitable for micro payments like paying for coffee due to its slow confirmation time and high tx fees. Solutions like the Lightning Network and other crypto payment systems were introduced to address that. Now, the Bakkt president announced another idea. In his tweet, he mentioned about the first integration of Bakkt Cash payment to the Starbucks mobile app. It is currently at beta stage and testers will be limited to a number of customers. Those interested will have to register to their Early Access Program.

What's your opinion on this?

Related article: Bakkt Announces New Direct Payment Integration with Starbucks

[hd49728]

There were many talks about how Bitcoin is not suitable for micro payments like paying for coffee due to its slow confirmation time and high tx fees.

We already have lightning network for it but it has not reached many success. In the future, with more improvements I think we can use bitcoin (on lightning network or the new others) for daily expenses with fast transactions and cheap fees.

With Eclair on mobile, for example

[Yaunfitda]

This was their plan after all, took them five months to have this app

https://www.pymnts.com/cryptocurrency/2019/crypto-trading-platform-bakkt-teams-up-with-starbucks-consumer-app/

Anything that get bitcoin closer to the average Joe as always a good news, specially for bitcoin coffee lovers, or shall I say Starbucks fanboys. I'm not into it, quite expensive to be honest. But nothing is wrong with this move, so let's see how it goes during their experimentation stage.

[stompix]

There were many talks about how Bitcoin is not suitable for micro payments like paying for coffee due to its slow confirmation time and high tx fees. Solutions like the Lightning Network and other crypto payment systems were introduced to address that. Now, the Bakkt president announced another idea.

So his idea is to load your Bakkt account with bitcoins and then use their app to pay for goods as you do right now with a coinbase or wirex card?

The problem is that unless you want to have your bitcoins stored on a bakkt account (remember, not your keys not your coins), you will have to fund it with every purchase, which brings you back to the first problem of microtransactions.
It might be a solution for micropayments, BUT it's not a solution to get rid of the third party. You're just replacing your bank with bakkt.

[Heisenberg_Hunter]

We already have lightning network for it but it has not reached many success. In the future, with more improvements I think we can use bitcoin (on lightning network or the new others) for daily expenses with fast transactions and cheap fees.

With Eclair on mobile, for example

Lightning Network is a beta and on-going process which needs a few more years for the widespread usage. As of now, there are far less nodes which made a part of the network as a centralized one. Last month I got to read a theory that over 8-10% of the nodes are in control of most of the funds which are going through lightning Network.

Segwit was another major improvement to scale bitcoin transactions by including more transactions in a block. But they are never really related to Lightning as they can scale a million number of transaction processing per second. Either we need more adoption towards bitcoin by not just using them as a store of value or considering them as a digital gold standard but rather using them for global payment services.

The primary goal of a currency is to be used as a medium of exchanges in a more faster way. Bitcoin has the ability to work independently without the intervention of third party but scalability seems to be a major factor affecting its adoption. Similarly Schnorr Signatures are a groundbreaking addition to bitcoin to improve the scaling and privacy features being governed by sipa. There is a long way to go and we are just 10 years into bitcoin.

[hd49728]

Lightning Network is a beta and on-going process which needs a few more years for the widespread usage. As of now, there are far less nodes which made a part of the network as a centralized one. Last month I got to read a theory that over 8-10% of the nodes are in control of most of the funds which are going through lightning Network.

I know but the Lightning network has its very high potential for more widely usages in the very near future. When it becomes more widely accepted, its network will become more decentralized.

Segwit was another major improvement to scale bitcoin transactions by including more transactions in a block. But they are never really related to Lightning as they can scale a million number of transaction processing per second. Either we need more adoption towards bitcoin by not just using them as a store of value or considering them as a digital gold standard but rather using them for global payment services.

Segwit at its beginning was supported on very limited number of exchanges or platforms but nowadays, most of exchanges / platforms and wallets already support Segwit. So everything need time to fully matured and accepted.

The primary goal of a currency is to be used as a medium of exchanges in a more faster way. Bitcoin has the ability to work independently without the intervention of third party but scalability seems to be a major factor affecting its adoption. Similarly Schnorr Signatures are a groundbreaking addition to bitcoin to improve the scaling and privacy features being governed by sipa. There is a long way to go and we are just 10 years into bitcoin.

That is not what I agree with you. Bitcoin is a backbone of crypto and it made the world known about the blockchain technology and the ecosystem of cryptocurrency was born from Bitcoin's contributions.

But I don't think bitcoin will grow further as a main means of exchanges, that tends to be the responsibility of altcoins. Bitcoin, in contrast, will maintain its role as a digital Gold and serves its role somewhat similar to Gold.

[Bttzed03]

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So his idea is to load your Bakkt account with bitcoins and then use their app to pay for goods as you do right now with a coinbase or wirex card?

That's what it looks like to me. There are no details yet but here's their latest article that says something about the app https://medium.com/bakkt-blog/bakkt-completes-300-million-series-b-financing-a072ff029135

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It might be a solution for micropayments, BUT it's not a solution to get rid of the third party. You're just replacing your bank with bakkt.

No, it does not but it brings convenience though and that's some people (who aren't concerned about decentralization) want. Bakkt wants to cash in on that.

[YuginKadoya]

It's a big yes, any kind of payment option is good to me as well if some countries would make payment using their Bitcoin on a Starbucks coffee in my country it is still in progress I think? but this Bakkt payment will be helpful in my opinion and at the time of crisis right now because of the COVID-19 virus pretty much it will be a big help in processing payment if some trouble may happen because there are a lot of people that don't have work and can not take their work at home and usually no work no pay if they have their hold cryptocurrency then it is not a problem anymore, just saying.