McDonald's Bitcoin payment at El Salvador are broken, users complain

[kryptqnick]

I don't know what's the case in this particular situation. I do remember watching vlogs about El Salvador and people trying to pay with BTC there, and I noticed that a lot of places allegedly accepted Bitcoin, but in practice they didn't and there were some sort of bugs, errors etc. when people tried paying. I'm sure it's still the most developed country in the world in terms of Bitcoin adoption, but my understanding was that Bitcoin not actually working as a payment option in El Salvador is a common issue. The law mandates accepting Bitcoin because it's legal tender, but perhaps the population is less willing to use it.

[Dr.Bitcoin_Strange]

The issue is with the machine and not really with the Bitcoin network. These days, Bitcoin transactions are so fast, and the transaction fee is also low. If they had just provided a normal Bitcoin address or QR code to the address, the transaction would have been processed without any issues.Everybusiness, shop, or company that accepts Bitcoin as a means of payment only does so as an alternative method of receiving payment from customers without forcing customers to pay with Bitcoin. Paying with Bitcoin is only the choice of customers. 

[serjent05]

Another reason why Bitcoin isn't the best choice to be used as a currency.

This can be easily fixed by using apps in transfers like sending internal transfers of  Bitcoin within an exchange, i.e., internal transfers like Binance account to Binance account.  We all know that sending Bitcoin normally won't compete with recent fiat currency instant transfer methods (except for international transfers) but using an application and doing internal transfers within  an application or platform accounts won't lag Bitcoin behind.

The company don't want loss, so they don't want the price of their product/service equivalent in Bitcoin, they use payment processor to convert fiat price in Bitcoin.

they had the price in fiat currency and got an equivalent price in Satoshi... I think it makes sense since their item is first priced in fiat currency and integrating Bitcoin payment comes later so it is logical that the item is priced in fiat then converted to satoshi in equal value.

On the other hand, customers want convenience and fast payment, they don't want to wait for few minutes if they have an another straightforward payment option.

Using an application and internal transfers between accounts can easily fix this but sadly, the process will become centralized since there is a need for third-party involvement (the apps) to make the instant transfers possible.


It is obvious that the problem with the Bitcoin payment system on Mcdonalds is the application, probably some glitches or unexpected error on the process making the visual presentation to terminate or shut instantly skipping the needed details for the customer to see.

This is not a problem coming from the Bitcoin network but the application.

[franky1]

I don't know what's the case in this particular situation. I do remember watching vlogs about El Salvador and people trying to pay with BTC there, and I noticed that a lot of places allegedly accepted Bitcoin, but in practice they didn't and there were some sort of bugs, errors etc. when people tried paying. I'm sure it's still the most developed country in the world in terms of Bitcoin adoption, but my understanding was that Bitcoin not actually working as a payment option in El Salvador is a common issue. The law mandates accepting Bitcoin because it's legal tender, but perhaps the population is less willing to use it.

its got nothing to do with the bitcoin network
its to do with issues with the lightning network

[Doan9269]

Another reason why Bitcoin isn't the best choice to be used as a currency.

Don't say that, whenever there is a challenge, you face it and not that you run away from it leaving it unsolved, have there not been series of network issues related to the use of fiat or other gateway payment systems, even in the bitcoin network, we once had the issue of bulkiness and that was resolved through the layer 2 protocol, this alone cant justify the reason why we should not take bitcoin as the most preferred digital currency for making payments.

[buwaytress]

Another reason why Bitcoin isn't the best choice to be used as a currency.

So much in the post that explains this isn't Bitcoin, but the payment processor (and as you said yourself, a problem later discovered to be with the Lightning node).

Now if they had just transacted on Bitcoin itself, there wouldn't have been a problem. Okay, one issue of consumer choice. I can pay 2800+ satoshi but do I want to pay the fee (today the recommended fee is about 43% of the payment)?

I'm not for or against LN but there's always that overlooked thing, not just in El Salvador but everywhere they tried using Bitcoin (or Lightning). You have to have the right support. Trained staff. People watching the nodes. Making sure the network's usable. A fault could also happen if using Bitcoin anyway, even if they were using BTCPay, for example, but it crashed. And you still couldn't say Bitcoin was at fault.

[Lanatsa]

Another reason why Bitcoin isn't the best choice to be used as a currency.

The company don't want loss, so they don't want the price of their product/service equivalent in Bitcoin, they use payment processor to convert fiat price in Bitcoin.

On the other hand, customer want convenience and fast payment, they don't want to wait for few minutes if they have an another straightforward payment option.

What could have been the cause to this issue?

If you read the tweet, it's due to OpenNode i.e. payment processor.

Indeed one of the hassle things for this one specially you would really be needing up to wait for some network confirmation before you could really be able to proceed even if it means on using up some
payment processor but still you would be needing up that network confirmation at least one. On the moment that the network blocks would be too long on making up those block confirmation then
you would really be having such delay and its really that a hassle thing. Im not really that against Bitcoin but it is indeed true that when it comes to simple things like buying up something
even if it means on using those processors but still not really that the same when paying up with those traditional fiat payments on which it would really be that instant.

I dont know on how it would really be resolved out in regarding into such condition on which it would really be better and best to look up for some solution
or approach in regarding into this problem because actually this is something that be a concern for those crypto loves or users.

[serjent05]

Now if they had just transacted on Bitcoin itself, there wouldn't have been a problem. Okay, one issue of consumer choice. I can pay 2800+ satoshi but do I want to pay the fee (today the recommended fee is about 43% of the payment)?

True!  I would rather pay with another option if I have to pay almost half of the amount purchased for the transaction fee.  Bitcoin transaction fee situation is not good for micropayment and to solve this issue is to use a centralized third-party application where transfers are made internally (which makes the transfer free) which many  Bitcoin enthusiasts especially those who advocate decentralized payment systems frown upon.  LN is also not a good option IMO especially if it is only a one-time transaction since one have to fund in order to create a channel that includes fund and transaction fee and I believe the fee is dependent on the charge of the node the LN network is trying to open[1] (pls correct me if I am wrong on this)

I'm not for or against LN but there's always that overlooked thing, not just in El Salvador but everywhere they tried using Bitcoin (or Lightning). You have to have the right support. Trained staff. People watching the nodes. Making sure the network's usable.

True creating a Lightning Network channel is way more complicated than just sending BTC directly so it needs more technical people that understand Bitcoin and Lightning Network and its integration.  This means a company need to pay more for the maintenance of the said system to avoid delay fixes and unnecessary down time of the system.


[1] https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/79577/how-much-bitcoin-is-needed-to-start-a-lightning-node

[bbc.reporter]

This title is clickbait and very much similar to the news that Tesla has begun accepting bitcoin hehehe. However, if the buyer wants to pay in bitcoin, it will take them to a payment processor that is very much similar to bitpay.com. The title for these types of news should be Tesla has partnered with bitpay.com as their new payment processor.

In any case, on this broken bitcoin payment news in El Salvador, it appears that the news media outlets are also using the tactic to hype bitcoin to also fud bitcoin hehehehehe.

[btc78]

What could have been the cause to this issue?

All fast food restaurants have some kind of issue especially with machines. Even McDonald’s couldn’t be bothered to fix their ice cream machine (if you know what I mean haha)

It’s possible that it’s not specifically bitcoin that is only experiencing these issues. It could be that other online payment methods as well experience this issue. Maybe it’s the processing of the actual machine.

Fast food restaurants use a what we call POS SYSTEM or point of sale. This is where you order and you pay. There’s still other processes involved to authorize the transaction so it might be possible that the cause may have been there.

Either way, they should do a better job but nonetheless it is nice to see bitcoin to be available in such normal places such as a MdcDonald’s.

[pinggoki]

I think this is the first time that this is being reported since they started to accept bitcoin. It is nothing wrong with bitcoin but the company processing it. I don't it is cause for alarm or any panic so long as users didn't lose their funds and there is no repeat of it. If there is a recurrence they could either change the payment processor or totally abandon crypto payment. I think the latter may be detrimental to the growth of the business. They may lose customers and then revenue. It would be wise if they can anticipate these issues before it happens so they they lose to their competition.

This is what I think so, they've probably expedited the process haplessly without the tests because they were on a deadline and now they're deploying this when it's still incomplete, that's what I think about this thing, if it was finished, they're probably not going to see any problem with the payment process. This isn't an issue of bitcoin in my opinion, it's probably more on the POS.

[fruktik]

The issue is with the machine and not really with the Bitcoin network. These days, Bitcoin transactions are so fast, and the transaction fee is also low. If they had just provided a normal Bitcoin address or QR code to the address, the transaction would have been processed without any issues.Everybusiness, shop, or company that accepts Bitcoin as a means of payment only does so as an alternative method of receiving payment from customers without forcing customers to pay with Bitcoin. Paying with Bitcoin is only the choice of customers. 

Yes you are right. No one forces anyone to pay in Bitcoins for services or goods. This is the choice of each person. Well, it also happens that payments do not go through, but this system also has disadvantages, like any other. Time will pass and everything will get better. Most likely, the problem is in the payment system itself, and not in the transactions.

[davis196]

This is a temporary problem and it has been solved(maybe it will occur again in the future, who knows). There's no reason to overdramatize and the main problem wasn't the BTC blockchain but the crypto payment processor. I don't like the idea of using BTC to pay for hamburgers and other kinds of junk food. The smart people would just HODL their BTC and pay for food via fiat. I also don't like the idea of forced BTC adoption(the type of adoption which happened in El Salvador). If the people don't want to pay via BTC, that's fine. Just don't force them to pay via Bitcoin.