There is a huge elephant in the room when considering crypto payments, and it seems like most people don’t see it. Whether you see it or not, it will have a massive influence on crypto payment systems. As cryptocurrencies become more widespread, and find their ways into more and more systems we use every day …
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Towards a common crypto transport layer
There are many ways the crypto community can work together to bring common standards to the ecosystem and improve adoption of the technology. One of those ways is coming up with a common payment protocol (see Towards a singular payment protocol), although that proposal only covers a small part of how different cryptocurrencies and even …
A cryptocurrency address name service
Here’s how a cryptocurrency name service could work. Instead of using a cryptocurrency address in a payment request, you would use a name. That name would resolve in standard DNS to a web page. That web page would also offer an API for a wallet to retrieve a real address. Let’s take a look at …
Towards a singular payment protocol
As described in A look at cryptocurrency URIs there have been many efforts in the last decade of cryptocurrency development to create easier ways to facilitate payments using coin-specific URIs and payment protocols. The first widely used design was BIP-21 for Bitcoin, which formed the basis for other efforts for Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, etc. The …
A look at cryptocurrency URIs
What cryptocurrency URIs exist, which are actually being used, and what is proposed for the future? URIs such as bitcoin: are being used in QR codes and NFC tags to enable simpler payments between users, and particularly at retail locations. If bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies want widespread acceptance, then they need to be usable for …
The ticker symbol problem
Cryptocurrencies (and indeed all currencies) are referred to by their names, by letter-based ticker symbols, as well as by graphic symbols. Common ticker symbols for cryptocurrencies include BTC for Bitcoin and ETH for Ether. You may have also seen XBT used for Bitcoin, and therein lies the seed of a major problem for those looking …
Cryptocurrency units
Taking a look at the units used by various cryptocurrencies gives some insight into their history and how they’re being used. Most cryptocurrencies use some form of metric (now officially the International System of Units, or the abbreviation SI from the original French Système International d’Unités) prefixes to denominate their currencies, so it’s worth first …