As we have been getting some media exposure in the past few days, I thought it would be worth while to take a hour or two break from coding this morning to write up a short article about some of the merchant applications of the ATOMIC network as well as answer a few questions people have been asking about how we can be assist members of the crypto-currency community, and their businesses with the ATOMIC project. You've probably also noticed that a whole lot of people have been posting in this thread announcing that they have joined the team in a position of tester. This is because we are getting close to being ready to test and release the project and anyone else who would like to join the team as a tester should send me a message or email
If you would prefer to read the following on our website here is the post:
http://atomicdac.org/?p=11076How ATOMIC will benifit merchantsATOMIC will have benefits for all existing and future blockchain companies
Many on bitcointalk and other forums have already figured out some of the ways that the ATOMIC network will make trade/commerce a smoother, faster and more secure process. In this post I would like to respond to many of the questions which have arose through this discourse as well as suggest what industries in crypto-currency and all other fields may be the first to adopt ATOMIC, and why. This is far from a complete list and I will be updating it regularly, I would recommend joining the mailing list to receive the latest info about the ATOMIC project.
Merchants (Online and brick/mortar)More and more businesses will begin to accept crypto-currency payments in the future (we’ve already seen Newegg and PayPal among others finally begin to accept crypto payments just recently) and any merchant that accepts crypto-currency payments in one coin or another is by default already accepting ATOMIC payments. This has major advantages for both customers and business owners.
The key benefits for merchants who will accept ATOMIC payments (although ATOMIC will still function without support of the particular merchant, there will be benefits to running an ATOMIC node at the physical location. For example, a merchant who already accepts crypto-currency payments will automatically accept payments from the ATOMIC network, however a merchant running an ATOMIC node will be able to accept other forms of blockchain based payments, some of which already exist, and many more that haven’t been invented yet)
Broader range of customers: In the past, a merchant would be limited by the number of wallets that they personally run, currency types/coins that their crypto payment processor accepted or even just a limited knowledge of crypto-currency lacking the thousands of crypto-currencies that have evolved since the initial release of Bitcoin. With ATOMIC payments, merchants will be able to accept absolutely any crypto-currency without any special setup besides what they already have in place to accept crypto payments (or any other blockchain based asset if they are running an ATOMIC node).
Faster payments: ATOMIC will introduce a constant verification time for ALL crypto-currencies. We all know that making a purchase in person with BTC can go really well if the merchant is setup with a payment processor that takes on some amount of risk and instantly “verifies” transactions. However, the process can also be lengthy and frustrating with other setups which is part of what led to the big bang of altcoins with much faster verifications than Bitcoin. The ATOMIC ledger operates at the speed of the ATOMIC blockchain which means that verifications will be very fast (we are pushing for instant) for all crypto-currencies and you will always have the option to make payment in a currency like NXT or LTC which have faster transaction times if the merchant is not setup for instant verifications.
No middle – man: With nobody to run away with all of the moolah, the decentralized approach to the ATOMIC network can assure merchants that their transactions are private, secure, and as cheap as possible. Making use of an ATOMIC node as a point of sale payment gateway will also inherently be free and require no sign up, account creation or revelation of private information and the merchant will have the additional benefits above such as being able to accept all forms of crypto payments as quickly as possible.
Mining Pools:Mining pools are in a very unique situation in the world of crypto. They transfer a very high volume of coins between their server wallets, cold wallets, possibly hot wallets, and then finally they are withdrawn and sent to their miners. Many of the best mining pools already offer the ability to automatically exchange the conglomerate of several different kinds of mined coins into one coin (such as Bitcoin) before withdrawal so that the life of the exchange and the miner is made happier. However the process on these pools is sometimes clunky, not to mention it includes large exchange and withdraw / transfer fees if the process is handled by a third party exchange which is how many pools are doing it. Mining pools who instead make use of the ATOMIC network as either an intermediary between themselves and their miners wallets (exchanging the coins as they are withdrawn into the one coin type that is the miners wallet) or they can make it a part of their cold storage process (exchange the coins right after they are mined and then move the converted single coin type into cold storage) this will make the cold storage process and the withdrawal processes much easier.
One coin to withdraw them all: ATOMIC will allow mining pools to automatically and cheaply exchange mined coins automatically and autonomously.
Simplified withdrawal process: Instead of storing numerous addresses for separate wallets, miners can specify one wallet address which will then be set as the default coin to which they would like to withdraw. When it comes time for the exchange to send the miner their coins, they will be exchanged in the air and arrive at the destination wallet as the type of coin desired.
Simplified cold storage: Instead of maintaining many cold storage wallets for each individual crypto-currency blockchain, ATOMIC will allow mining pools or anyone else that may find use in the feature, to first exchange all of their different coins into one coin type before moving them into cold storage. This will simplify the process so greatly and ATOMIC exchanges will be cheap enough that it will be well worth it for mining pools to adopt a new, more simple method of cold storage that involves less moving parts and therefore may operate more smoothly and securely.
Crypto-currency exchanges:
With recent events and historical (if you could call it that) involving crypto-currency exchanges you could see why it might be beneficial for any exchange running today to make use of the ATOMIC ledger as a way to audit and verify the contents of both hot and cold wallets. The ATOMIC network will provide a currently undisclosed (don’t want to make promises for features before they are proven) auditing mode of the POE algorithm that we have developed in order to server as a decentralized auditing system. That’s all I’m putting out there for now in regards to this but be sure to sign up for the mailing list if you would like more updates as soon as we are ready!
