instant confirmation via payment protocol backwards compatible proto buffer extension

Summary:

Mike Hearn is discussing the scalability of Bitcoin for in-person payments without trusted third parties. He argues that even though putting every possible provider in the payment message might not scale, it's okay for now since he hopes Bitcoin will never have to scale to that size. He acknowledges that having a theoretical lack of scalability might be an issue if someone comes up with use cases for other options. He also points out that merchants typically do not trust more than a handful of third parties.Lawrence suggests a more scalable approach would be for the user to send the name and signature of their "instant provider" every time, and the merchant just chooses whether to ignore it or not. However, this is incompatible with the provider charging extra fees for "instantness." Mike wonders about the purchasing experience with optional paid-for third-party anti-double-spend protection. He ultimately concludes that it is the merchant who cares about this, not him, so why should he ever pay.Mike argues that it makes no sense for him to pay for double spend protection for the merchant since he is honest, but he acknowledges that in a low amounts world people will probably accept zero confs. With higher amounts, they will either not accept Bitcoin unless instant confirmed or make the user wait if that's even feasible. Mike thinks that the receiver cares about confirmations and that time and money are important.Mike suggests that the user always submits the details of their instantness provider, and they don't allow for optional selection of instantness. However, that design may not work UX wise, and he's not sure if having a less scalable design to support it is worthwhile. They may charge the merchant that can then turn charge the user, or they may charge the user and be transparent about it. Perhaps just like today, people ask which card to use, and the same will go for instant, and the merchants will just pick the instant provider from a touch screen before allowing the payment in.

Updated on: 2023-06-08T23:59:04.342452+00:00