Ok thanks for your replies, it is pretty clear now, otherwise it didn’t make sense.
The only difference I see is that for a shop to get a card terminal someone has to sell it to them, in this case banks, but many years ago salesmen were going around the shops.
In this case, do you think lightning network enthusiasts are going to go around explaining to the shops the advantages of accepting bitcoin? Or are we expecting them to accept bitcoin when they learn about the advantages themselves? In this second case, adoption will be slower. Probably much slower.
I would think that small to medium sized businesses will always be on the lookout for ways to reduce costs. Typically they rent card terminals.
Example costs in UK.
Terminal Hire
Countertop Terminal £14 to £16 per month
Portable Terminal £17 to £21
Mobile Terminal £20 to £24
Transaction Fee
Debit Cards 0.25% to 0.35%
Consumer Credit Card 0.7% to 0.9%
Commercial Credit Card 1.6% to 1.8%
Chargeback Fee
£10-£20
Source:
https://www.cardswitcher.co.uk/2017/01/card-payment-processing-fees/That is going to add up to a hefty bill for any business.
When cards were first coming into use there was a need to sell the idea as being advantageous to cash despite the extra overheads of running it. Whereas LN will have the advantage of being a cost saving. We're still a long way from LN actually being a feasible alternative, but when it is it will sell itself.