Merchant Tools - Which Coin?

[ventrabit]

Introduction

I have stirred up some interest with investors due to some of my activity on talkgold.com. WARNING: Do not invest in any programs listed there as most, perhaps all, are scams. I learned this the hard way!!!

Anyway I have had some discussions with investors that led to the idea of creating a merchant tool/plugin for all major shopping carts (magento, zencart, opencart, bigcommerce etc). The benefit of this tool is merchants can easily choose either BitPay, Coinbase, Mtgox or direct with blockchain api.

This is going well and our developers are finding it very simple. The price for one shopping cart plugin for testing sample was cheap and final quote for 12 shopping cart plugins is a lot less than we expected. Therefore we can afford to take this to the next level and add another or even several coins.

We just need to be steered in the right direction so that all development funds are spent wisely and there is minimal wasted time and money.

Main Question

Which coins should we include and why?

Other Questions

Would it be wise to only have one or two other coins besides BTC? If so which one or two or as many as possible such as LTC, PPC, TRC, NMC, NVC and FTC ?

Are there any other coins that should be considered?

Thank you for your time reading this, all replies will be appreciated and will be considered in great detail.

[1715386564]

1715386564

[1715386564]

1715386564

[1715386564]

1715386564

[1715386564]

1715386564

[ventrabit]

This may need to be moved to a more suitable section, sorry.

[amincd]

I personally support only promoting one blockchain for currency purposes: BTC. More than one blockchain, all of them based on almost identical software, providing the same currency function, is confusing and unnecessary.

[odolvlobo]

Take a look at this graph:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=187969.msg1948086#msg1948086

[John (John K.)]

I personally support only promoting one blockchain for currency purposes: BTC. More than one blockchain, all of them based on almost identical software, providing the same currency function, is confusing and unnecessary.

This +1.

[ventrabit]

I personally support only promoting one blockchain for currency purposes: BTC. More than one blockchain, all of them based on almost identical software, providing the same currency function, is confusing and unnecessary.

Thank you for your opinion. I tend to agree but just recently, over the past 2 weeks, I'm not so sure.

I was thinking it may help the entire crypto community to have one single universal shopping cart plugin where one coin, two or more in any combination can be used. The merchant could make their choice.

For example a merchant may like to use bitcoin and litecoin as a payment option. This way the merchant can simply tick the BTC and LTC option, enter the addresses, select the processing type and any other optional details depending on processing type such as fee structure, number of confirmations etc. Simple as possible.

I posted here because whilst chatting with a friend he said he would be interested in a litecoin version or even feathercoin version. I'm thinking why not have one version with all coins but only if there is a real desire and it will be worthwhile and used. I definitely wouldn't want to make several exclusive plugins that's for sure.

Also, I see a lot of people in chat rooms, trollbox etc debating the value of other coins and statements such as, where can I spend this coin and that coin etc. it aint worth anything if I can't use it blah blah. And some say that bitcoin is the gold and shouldn't even be the every day currency but more a storage system and a lighter, faster coin should be used for spending and used for everyday spending.

Anyway I'm still brain storming, slightly confused and appreciate the feedback as I can't go ahead until I'm focused and a definite plan of action with correct reasoning is established.

Thanks

[Stampbit]

I personally support only promoting one blockchain for currency purposes: BTC. More than one blockchain, all of them based on almost identical software, providing the same currency function, is confusing and unnecessary.

Thank you for your opinion. I tend to agree but just recently, over the past 2 weeks, I'm not so sure.

I was thinking it may help the entire crypto community to have one single universal shopping cart plugin where one coin, two or more in any combination can be used. The merchant could make their choice.

For example a merchant may like to use bitcoin and litecoin as a payment option. This way the merchant can simply tick the BTC and LTC option, enter the addresses, select the processing type and any other optional details depending on processing type such as fee structure, number of confirmations etc. Simple as possible.

I posted here because whilst chatting with a friend he said he would be interested in a litecoin version or even feathercoin version. I'm thinking why not have one version with all coins but only if there is a real desire and it will be worthwhile and used. I definitely wouldn't want to make several exclusive plugins that's for sure.

Also, I see a lot of people in chat rooms, trollbox etc debating the value of other coins and statements such as, where can I spend this coin and that coin etc. it aint worth anything if I can't use it blah blah. And some say that bitcoin is the gold and shouldn't even be the every day currency but more a storage system and a lighter, faster coin should be used for spending and used for everyday spending.

Anyway I'm still brain storming, slightly confused and appreciate the feedback as I can't go ahead until I'm focused and a definite plan of action with correct reasoning is established.

Thanks

Yes you should give merchants the option to take different coins, and that may add to their legitimacy and utility as a cryptocurrency, however without a payment processor like bitpay to handle the transfer into fiat it is unlikely any merchant will want to use an alternative coin.

Btw +1 for using whilst in a sentence.

[amincd]

I was thinking it may help the entire crypto community to have one single universal shopping cart plugin where one coin, two or more in any combination can be used. The merchant could make their choice.

For example a merchant may like to use bitcoin and litecoin as a payment option. This way the merchant can simply tick the BTC and LTC option, enter the addresses, select the processing type and any other optional details depending on processing type such as fee structure, number of confirmations etc. Simple as possible.

I think fragmentation of bitcoin-based cryptocurrency across multiple incompatible networks could threaten adoption significantly in the long run, which is why I am actively avoiding promoting any other bitcoin-variants.

The short term gain of some speculators and miners I think comes at the long term cost of less investor and merchant confidence in bitcoin-based cryptocurrency due to the lack of one clear leader and one ubiquitous global digital payment network for transferring value, like the way there is one internet for transferring information globally.

Also, I see a lot of people in chat rooms, trollbox etc debating the value of other coins and statements such as, where can I spend this coin and that coin etc. it aint worth anything if I can't use it blah blah.

These people are mostly altcoin miners, and don't represent the average investor or consumer.

And some say that bitcoin is the gold and shouldn't even be the every day currency but more a storage system and a lighter, faster coin should be used for spending and used for everyday spending.

If bitcoin stops being used as a currency, it will lose most of its value. The other bitcoin-variants are not lighter than bitcoin, and some of them have their transactions secured faster only because of one parameter tweak, block-time, that bitcoin can easily adopt.

Anyway I'm still brain storming, slightly confused and appreciate the feedback as I can't go ahead until I'm focused and a definite plan of action with correct reasoning is established.

Good luck. I think whatever you decide will be the best course of action overall for the cryptocurrency market. I just ask that you consider my point, that the people promoting bitcoin-variants could be motivated by short-term profit.

[ventrabit]

I appreciate the link to the chart John. The figures are staggering but will they or could they change? Do they need to change?

Amincd, thank you for your thoguhts, I appreciate your detailed explanations. I am taking each of your points into consideration, they make complete sense.

Yes you should give merchants the option to take different coins, and that may add to their legitimacy and utility as a cryptocurrency

Thanks for your opinion Stampbit, it shows me that there is an argument worth investigating further.

...however without a payment processor like bitpay to handle the transfer into fiat it is unlikely any merchant will want to use an alternative coin.

Yes, I agree. This is true at this point in time. I suppose my real question is will this change?

Mmm I wonder if BitPay would ever consider an alternative coin as a payment option? If so, which one/s?

Would MtGox ever include other coins on their platform?

Thanks again!