Today just reminded me why we should avoid all these centralized services like the plague.
One online retailer <I will not mention names> started their Black Friday earlier this year and it is a absolute mess. They do not process transactions directly, but opted to use a payment processor. Let's call this payment processor, PayX for this example.
Ok, the retailer started very early to beat it's competition, so naturally it's online website was hammered with visitors and it was very slow.
I placed my order for some goods and I was redirected to PayX to do the payment, but PayX cannot handle all the traffic, so they cannot process the payment. The payment processor also redirect you to your Bank to verify the transaction, but the re-direction does not work. <overloaded with requests>
The problem is as follows :
1. Goods on special have limited quantities.
2. If your payment is not processed within a specific time, then your claim on that product is nullified and you lose the deal.
So, due to payment problems, my deals did not go through and I lost almost $1000 in saving from the goods that were on special. !!!!
If they used Bitcoin as a direct payment option, then we would not have had these problems. I made several Bitcoin transactions over the last couple of months and most was confirmed within the first 10 minutes. <SegWit>
Let's avoid payment processors and third party payment methods at all cost and just pay directly from one Bitcoin address to the next on the Blockchain or better yet, via the Lightning Network if you need more speed.