I've seen 45-60 mins between blocks a lot over the years
It'd be great to see the actual data on this.
that's still too long when people can use an altcoin or cashapp/paypal/venmo to pay someone and its confirmed instantly
I actually agree with this for the most part. The Bitcoin maxi position is to use the lighting network, which is kind of an alt-network, but it uses Bitcoin. Why use some altcoin when you can use the lightning network?
The majority of the world doesn't give enough fucks about staying anonymous to push the issues I mentioned to the side
What does staying anonymous have to do with the amount of time it takes to mine a block?
Staying anonymous is just a general major benefit of transacting Bitcoin on chain but my point was that maxi's think the complete anonymity of Bitcoin will bring people to Bitcoin in droves and that couldn't be more wrong. And even if these people are using Bitcoin most of them will be doing it on a platform which requires KYC information which throws anonymity out the window.
Also, I've said repeatedly that mass lightning integration for in person payments for goods and services is the only possibly savior for Bitcoin as a whole. And right now that's not looking too good especially here in the United States. And when I mean mass integration I mean the same integration that happened with Google pay/apple pay/Samsung pay/tap to pay a few years ago. Using nfc on your phone with those apps to pay in stores or even at vending machines now you can use those payment methods simply by tapping your phone to the reader. That's the kind of mass integration we need to see with lightning but the probability of that happening anytime soon is highly unlikely IMO
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Staying anonymous is just a general major benefit of transacting Bitcoin on chain
Eh, I don't agree, Bitcoin is literally a public ledger. I think it's just a misconception that Bitcoin = anonymous. If you have good opsec you can be more anonymous, but that is the case with everything, not just Bitcoin.
IMO the Lightning Network is already better than Google pay, Paypal, Venmo, Apply Pay, etc, it just hasn't reached critical mass. If/When it does it'll be great.
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I actually agree with you to an extent. However, the part that makes it not better is that setting up a node is complicated for an average small business owner and I can see the issue of not being able to find a route becoming a problem too. Those are what make it not so great in comparison. Cashapp/Google pay/ect, never have the routing issues.
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