I had this question a while ago since as sellers who are enthusiast about Bitcoin and especially for lightning can now-days trade in sats for their businesses, I feel it would be a great opportunity to buy/sell such products through lightning for both parties.
But the main doubt: 1) Would you trust it?
  1. If you do so, would you prefer to pay first or receive the order first and pay after similar to COD but with Sats? (I would like to present my opinion here: I think as the history says, customer paying first is considered appropriate than the later since the business can be downgraded with low ratings and such but the customer remains unaffected if he/she scams by not paying).
  2. If someone sells the same product in local currency and at same rates, which one would you prefer, the one who allows lightning and thus pay with lightning or the one who only accepts fiat currency (here assuming both are legit and the rates are same).
Yes, if not why are we even into bitcoin.
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Boom! Nailed it.
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But I have bought things with sats over lightning:
Been a while since I ordered a new batch of this. I still have so much #30430
I just finished this book this past weekend: https://florin.hilbay.net/
And ultimately, I pay first, and I explained why that works well here: https://primal.net/thread/note1grwvzxq5kkfd20urr2kegzffcqqw6p98pyqhccy390dc8e5ymfus9cwmek
Now, would an escrow service to help promote smaller businesses, be helpful since they have established customer trust yet? Maybe, but I also think smaller businesses, work best with their local community, face to face interactions where you wouldn't want to fail delivery or risk being hated by the entire community. Maybe an escrow service could be helpful for international trade between newly met business partners though? I can see that, and they would be dealing in larger amounts that would justify on-chain multi-sig.
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I agree with the thought...
I also think smaller businesses, work best with their local community, face to face interactions where you wouldn't want to fail delivery or risk being hated by the entire community
Thank you for the above links, very interested in the book, could you give a brief review of your experience of reading this?
Escrow service would be great but I dont see any getting popularized for the BTC transactions...
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100%
  1. certainly trust in-person transactions
  2. prefer to receive good/service first then pay
  3. no preference per se, not sure what your asking here - why not accept both? Given the option would choose LN
sidenote: for sellers that you want to pay BTC/LN for goods - LN is great way to onboard seller if they want to but don't know how - set them up on easy LN wallet (Muun, Wallet of Satoshi) so much easier to see receiving sats instantly without having to get into why need to wait for on-chain confirmation
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In person it would be better to give the service or good first and then recieve payment.
But assuming if we are selling online, the business will get bankrupt in a day if it starts selling first and reciving payment later, most are never going to pay after that. IMO, a consumer can present the business as a victim but to how many people the business is going to present?
Actually, accepting both is best but just for the preference, assuming you have 40 USD each in lightning and local currency, you want to buy a book costing 20 USD, in that case what would be your preferable mode of payment?
Agreed, lightning is as fast as its name, it would be fruitful for the businesses already accepting BTC to approve lightning sales.
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Firstly in relation to online selling:
Sellers who offer goods or services online typically require payment before delivery and for instant services like downloading digital content, it makes sense to accept LN for instant settlement. For physical goods requiring shipment, it is reasonable to ask for on-chain payment if preferred and Sellers could confirm transaction before shipping.
Secondly in relation to purchase of book with LN vs dirty fiat: If a seller demonstrates commitment to the circular economy and BTC adoption by accepting BTC for buying goods and services and using for their own purchases, I would be inclined to support them with sats. However, if we do not appear to share similar values this may also be opportunity to unload my dirty fiat in exchange for a book I want anyway.
My preference would be to do business with a seller that I also have shared values around adoption and moving towards a Bitcoin standard. If you not a fully orange pilled sovereign maxi …No sats for you! LOL
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Whenever I'm in a place where I don't normally go (for privacy and security reasons), I always ask if they accept to receive via bitcoin. Usually, the answer is no. But the few times the answer was yes, I bought from them using the lightning network. Every time I paid the amount equal to the amount I would pay using fiat currency, however, I see this as a motivator for the seller to continue using this type of payment. However, when I shop online and there is an option to pay via bitcoin, I only pay if there is some kind of discount.
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That means if the seller provides a product for X USD but if you pay in BTC, he gives you 10% Disc, in that situation the most chances are you will be paying in BTC? As mentioned, for privacy reason, but if that disc. is given where you dont consider privacy as important, then preferable mode of paying be with normal currency or reciving a % off by BTC payment?
In your opinion, could providing such discount may increase the potential sales for the seller? Assume the business is selling online and ignore the in-person factors.
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If the sale is in person, in my case, I will always choose to use bitcoin, not for financial reasons such as a discount, but to help the bitcoin economy spin. Now, when I'm making an online purchase, in this case I always opt for the purchase with bitcoin if and only if there is a discount. However, I always give preference to those who sell only in bitcoin. For example, a site where the payment method is unique and exclusive in bitcoin, and the price is practically the same in fiat, I opt for it.
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