(English translation)
Starting tomorrow, Qerko is suspending Bitcoin payments. Unfortunately, the payment provider has stopped meeting the requirements necessary for processing funds according to current contracts, and Qerko cannot process Bitcoin on its own independently.
Source: https://x.com/pepakriz/status/2017543597583638610
Qerko was a diamond in the rough for paying in Bitcoin at restaurants in the Czech Republic. Merchants using payment processors needed to KYC for a fucking coffee.
Merchants who take the payment on a self custodial wallet are fine.
MiCA is bullshit.
Here’s a programmer from Qerko who was in charge of BTC payments in Qerko and the author of the X post.
Yeah, the whole situation around regulations forced me to try paving a different path.
Right now, as my side project, I’m building a self-custody payment system similar to Qerko, but based on local-first and open-source principles. It’s called Finito - https://github.com/finitoapp/finito
The merchant runs their own POS (Point-Of-Sale) directly in the browser, and communication with the payment app happens via Nostr. So no backend, no 3rd-party dependencies,...
It will support not only BTC (which will be natively built-in), but also classic fiat currencies. For example, in Czechia there’s the option to pay for services account-to-account, and this method will also be supported in Finito via a plugin.
I’d welcome any help with the project. I'm just at the beginning.
The ambition is also to have an invoicing system in Finito, which could be appreciated by a large number of small entrepreneurs / sole traders.
So, paying through a payment processor is like paying with mastercard, both parties need to be KYC, while paying p2p is like cash and no KYC needed?
If that's the case, it is good for bitcoin. It makes clear what is bitcoin (p2p cash) vs IOU virtual currencies
I like this take.
You want increased use of LN but you cannot be bothered attaching a wallet here on Stacker News?
How is the LN going to grow if it faces such opposition from governments and regulators and such apathy from 'Bitcoiners' like you who cannot be bothered using the LN where you can?
You think using CCs is the same as sending sats?
Its not.
Stacker News has been build at some considerable time and cost and effort to enable BTC sats based V4V P2P social network but you cannot be bothered taking the effort to attach a wallet.
If we want BTC/LN to grow we need to use it where we can and fight to have the right to use it everywhere.
I am not zapping anyone who calls themselves a Bitcoiner but cannot be bothered attaching a LN wallet.
See? That ia the problem, not bitcoin.
Agreed. But it limits my ability to use Bitcoin.
every crisis is an opportunity. Now is time for you to properly onboard those merchants.
By giving them more work, more costs, more employee training required, more time wasted, lower margins.
You sure do have always smart ideas...
You can go to the places you often frequent and explain your situation:
”I used to come here because I could pay with bitcoin through Qerko.. but they removed the option. Now here’s how you can accept bitcoin directly, let me show you..”
I can imagine that having legs if I was a super duper regular.
Qerko was a network of restaurants, and none of them cared about Bitcoin. Likely had no visibility on the chosen payment method.
And you still went to those ones, literally supporting a fiat system, instead of going to the ones that really accept BTC directly. Right, so you are complaining about how fiat system fails.
muted.
There is a limit to idiocy.
yea bro cmon what kind of reply is this. are we just supposed to sit here and cry about it?
spooks are always giving these replies
Do not trust- verify.
If you do not have a horse and gun you have not attached a wallet and you are not supporting the BTC LN V4V P2P circular economy that has been built here on Stacker News.
You are thus a hyocrit to call yourself a Bitcoiner and may well be a spook or just a wimp who does not dare to breach tax regulations.
Who is @DarthCoin ?
Nobody here except his sock puppets really knows.
The NSA would surely love to infiltrate any Libertarian community and gain knowledge and inside access to its technical and social network.
@Darthcoin fits the profile of a spook...talking big but not matching the big talk with actions.
Attach a wallet and prove you are not afraid to breach tax regulations in order to advance the use and development of the LN.
S I L E N C E.
Where are the additional costs coming from? If a merchant starts accepting Lightning payments on their own behalf shouldn’t they be cheaper?
shut up slave, go back to your fiat masters
#1425329
You are promoting CC shitcojns because you say they are more reliable than using sats here on SNs.
CCs were only introduced here on Stacker News due to duress from threats coming from the state...and yet you support them.
You have become a statist shitcoin promoter and uber hypocrit.
...so he can scam someone else and offload his problem onto them? How rude
This is hilarious coming from you @DarthCoin when you cannot even be bothered attaching a LN wallet here n SNs and you call CCs better than sats because CCs are more reliable.
If we do not use the LN everywhere we can it will not grow stronger- it will die from lack of use.
And you are not using it despite all your big claims about 'living on the bitcoin standard'.
I hope it stays that way.
More likely, though, they'll have to choose one day whether to comply with ever more new regulations, or accept payments clandestinely.
Always has been an attack. Digital Euro, then abolition of cash. EU is doomed.
No, the worse it gets the merrier, more people will find more sovereign solutions this way
Do hope so. Darwinism in action.
MiCA sounds like an absolutely horrible regulation to deal with. But I'm sympathetic to some other comments here: maybe things will get so bad on the regulation front, that people will come to bitcoin because they actually need it.
Bitcoiners: Bitcoin is permissionless money!
Also Bitcoiners: Be right back! I'm asking the state if I'm allowed to use Bitcoin here.
Also Bitcoiners: The state said, "no". This is bullshit, so sad, HFSP.
This will continue until the infrastructure we build on BTC is aligned with it's permissionless nature.
The reality is most businesses must comply with taxes and other regulatory impositions.
There is too little momentum and incentive for the vast majority of merchants to enable Bitcoin.
Add that to the sheer apathy of many self describing 'Bitcoiners' who cannot be fucked to even attach a wallet here on Stacker News where the infrastructure has been provided intentionally to enable a sats based payments system, and you have systemic failure.
If we all do what we can there is hope but I see too much big talk and vapid hopium but no actual actions taken.
Why not use bitcoin simple as it is?
Very sad information in between
Good, more people will drink less soymilk now.
https://twiiit.com/pepakriz/status/2017543597583638610