20 sats \ 1 reply \ @DarthCoin 28 Jul 2022 \ on: Bitrefill monetization technique... bitcoin
I live on BTC so I use a lot bitrefill and many others.
Personally I don't give a shit about the BTC/fiat rate.
I use Bitrefill when I can't pay directly the merchant in BTC.
You are too focused on the price. Is a distraction. And is a distraction because you are still buying BTC, not earning it.
Start being paid in BTC, use bitwage.com for example to start. And all your world will change slowly.
If you still are in "accumulating stage" (not early adopter), just spend your BTC on things that you really need and you really have to pay in BTC.
Another thing to take in consideration: Bitrefill is a commercial company not a non-profit/"homeless shelter". They have to earn money, they are not there to "help" you.
Also, when you pay with LN on Bitrefill, your payment is not going straight to their node (even if you have a channel with their node), but to other 1-2 ghost hops nodes (same as theirs) that charge also a fee in sats (and not so cheap). This is a technique that many big nodes are using to squeeze users.
That's why they offer also "sats back" for your purchases, they recover those sats from these fees.
For me is fine this, is capitalism, everybody have to earn a buck, but at least they could be more transparent about that.
Don't believe me? Fine, track your payments from your LN node and see for yourself.
Yes, this is completely normal, because there are few actors in Bitrefill's market, volume is probably not too high, and bitcoin payments are actually new. Normal paths of evolution of this situation are: 1. If results are too good, other actors will start competing, lowering general fees due to competition. 2. If results are bad, the market will shrink, and probably a different business model will emerge.
3. and this is the most likely in long term: Merchants will try to cut the middleman, accepting BTC directly. That is what has happened in my country with banks, now payment processors (usually associated with stores like Walmart, Mercadolibre, etc) literally have become banks (setting up checking accounts in 5 minutes), driving account monthly fees to literally zero, taking over the checking accounts market. The same to some extent has happened to the credit market, where regular banks have also lost share, but with much fiery legal battle.
3. and this is the most likely in long term: Merchants will try to cut the middleman, accepting BTC directly. That is what has happened in my country with banks, now payment processors (usually associated with stores like Walmart, Mercadolibre, etc) literally have become banks (setting up checking accounts in 5 minutes), driving account monthly fees to literally zero, taking over the checking accounts market. The same to some extent has happened to the credit market, where regular banks have also lost share, but with much fiery legal battle.
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