Stripe, the mobile payment processor with a $ 9 billion valuation, announced that it is in the process to officially reduce its Bitcoin integration. Over the next three months, Stripe customers will be encouraged to migrate away from Bitcoin payments. After that, Bitcoin will no longer be accepted at all.

Stripe made waves in 2015 when it fully integrated Bitcoin, allowing all providers who use the platform to accept Bitcoin payments. Many saw this as a sign of the imminent acceptance of Bitcoin as a means of payment, but high fees and slow transaction confirmations hindered the network.

Disappointment

In a blog post, Stripe noted, "We hoped that Bitcoin could become a universal and decentralized substrate for online transactions and help our customers find buyers in places where they are. "

Stripe cites slow confirmation deadlines and high fees as the reason for his abandonment of Bitcoin as a method of payment:

"This led Bitcoin to become less useful for payments, however.Terms of confirmation of transactions have increased considerably, This, in turn, has led to an increase in the failure rate of transactions denominated in fiat currencies. (At the moment the transaction is confirmed Bitcoin price fluctuations mean that it's for the "wrong" amount.) In addition, fees have gone up a lot.For a regular Bitcoin transaction, fees of tens of US dollars are common, making Bitcoin transactions about as expensive as bank transfers. "

Bitcoin as active

Stripe remains optimistic about cryptocurrency as a whole, but the company sees Bitcoin as more of an asset than a payment network:

"During the year or two, as the block size limits were Achievements, Bitcoin has evolved to become better suited to be an asset than to be a means of exchange. Given the global success that the Bitcoin community has achieved, it is difficult to quibble with the decisions that have been made along the way. (And we are certainly happy to see that any new ambitious project succeeds so well). "

The company's comments echo those of others in the digital monetary space, like Max Keizer, who sees Bitcoin as a kind of" Gold 2.0 "rather than # 39; a means of exchange:

"[The digital currency] Dash is becoming the payment crypto rail while Bitcoin claims as Gold 2.0. I suggest to those who are frustrated with the Bitcoin Scale Debate to accept Dash for Payments and let Core Bitcoin continue to work on Gold 2.0. "

Enter the altcoins A more viable payment network than Bitcoin, Stripe quotes several other currencies as contenders: " OmiseGO is an ambitious and intelligent proposition; More generally, Ethereum continues to generate many projects with high potential. We can add support for Stellar (to which we have provided start-up funds) if long-term use continues to grow. It is possible that Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, or another Bitcoin variant, finds a way to achieve significant popularity while keeping settlement times and transaction fees very low. "

Notably, the company does not intend to incorporate any of these supposed" best "currencies into its platform.

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Reversible

Stripe is left open to reconsider Bitcoin as a means of payment in the future:

"We are interested in what is happening with Lightning and other proposals to allow faster payments … Bitcoin itself could become viable again for payments in the future. "

With the slow adoption of Separated Witnesses effective death plans to increase the size of Bitcoin blocks, all eyes are turning to the Lightning network to make Bitcoin viable again for payments The Lightning network has been in development for some time and there are several concurrent implementations. , none of them is considered safe or suitable for general use. With Stripe, Steam and others completing their acceptance of Bitcoin payments, it is clear that if the currency is to be considered a viable network for payments, lightning should soon hit.