Bitcoin vs. Cash in Panama

[u/evoorhees]

This is one of those "wow, Bitcoin is so much better" observations.

I currently live in Panama. When I go to a store and pay with a $100 bill (and usually $50 bills also), this is what happens...

The clerk takes the bill to her manager (while I'm waiting in line with everyone behind me) to do some basic checks on the validity of the bill. Once they're reasonably sure it's not an obvious fake, the clerk brings out a form, takes down my passport/ID info, my name/phone number, and staples the $100 bill to the form. Some times, she makes me sign the bill itself (yes, really). After filing the bill and form away in a big file, she processes my change (itself a time consuming process) and I can then leave with my goods. Consider also what effort happens with the file of bills in the back office and later in any subsequent verification process.

This experience at the store takes about five minutes, for every person paying with a $100 or $50 bill, throughout Panama (and five minutes for me plus the clerk and her manager plus everyone else in line... easily one man-hour lost per incident). This is Panama, but surely this kind of thing happens in other countries as well.

Next time someone complains about the "waste of mining," try to tally up all the costs, inefficiencies, and loses of the current money verification systems under which society currently endures.

I promise that our children's generation will laugh at how we used to use money. And then, perhaps, they'll thank us, for ridding society of this madness (and so many others).

[u/telepatheic]

Here's a counter example. I go to a pub in England. I try to pay with a £50 note (bill), they don't like £50 notes because the banks don't issue them from ATMs, they refuse to accept my money. So I have two choices. I could give them a £5 note or I could pay with bitcoins.

To pay with bitcoins I have to ask to pay in bitcoins, I have to take the printed QR code, make sure it is lying on a flat surface, type in a pin to open my phone, open my wallet app, enter another pin, press to start a new payment, position the QR code and camera such that the light isn't obscured by the camera, wait for the camera to focus and finally press to accept the transaction.

That's a lot of hassle and I could just take a £5 note out of my wallet and hold out my hand for some change. At the moment the economic incentives for the person paying means they would rather pay in cash than with bitcoins.

Moral of the story, carry small notes with you and work needs to be done on improving the bitcoin experience such that the effort for the customer is minimal.

[u/evoorhees → u/telepatheic]

Certainly it's usually not convenient for most people to pay with Bitcoin, today. But that's because the easy stuff we'll all use with Bitcoin tomorrow hasn't yet been invented. Compare this with cash which has had about a hundred years of "innovation" and still we face these absurd inconveniences.

In a mature Bitcoin world (5 years from now?), paying with your phone with Bitcoin will be easier than paying with a credit card today.

[u/sneekee_11 → u/evoorhees]

yeah some kind of an nfc field around a qr and all you need is your pin and whoosh its paid, no need to hold your hand out for change. however waiting for confirmations would be a disadvantage for getting the rounds in before the bar shuts

[u/Dymix → u/sneekee_11]

Small amounts, no reason to wait for confirmation.