PaymentsJournal
SUBSCRIBE
  • Analysts Coverage
  • Truth In Data
  • Podcasts
  • Videos
  • Industry Opinions
  • News
  • Resources
No Result
View All Result
PaymentsJournal
  • Analysts Coverage
  • Truth In Data
  • Podcasts
  • Videos
  • Industry Opinions
  • News
  • Resources
No Result
View All Result
PaymentsJournal
No Result
View All Result

Merchant-friendly payments: less than perfect, but better than before

Mercator Advisory Group by Mercator Advisory Group
July 15, 2013
in Analysts Coverage
0

Coins.Money icon. Internet button on white background.

0
SHARES
0
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedIn

The developers of Bitcoin reportedly plan togive the virtual currency an upgrade to make payments more merchant friendly.Through the Payment Request initiative, Bitcoin would provide a mechanism forsending verified payments between individuals and merchants that includes anextra layer of security. The developers aren’t saying specifically when thechanges might occur.

With Payment Request , instead sending paymentsto a bitcoin address, someone paying in bitcoins waits for an emailed requestfrom the merchant, or one supplied from a website. The customer’s bitcoinclient uses the information contained in the request to make a payment, thusimproving the security of the payment process.

From CoinDesk:

In the traditional bitcoinpayment system, bitcoins are sent by manually pasting a long, gibberishalphanumeric address into a bitcoin client. Some clients allow for QR codes ofaddresses to be scanned.

“It’s great technically but itlooks like a monkey banging on a keyboard to the average person,” says coredeveloper Jeff Garzik. Aside from being difficult for the average non-techie tounderstand or use, the gobbledygook address format makes a number of attackspossible. “For example you don’t know whether the bitcoin address I gave you isreally mine,” he points out.

There is a danger that theaddress is either inaccurate, or simply fraudulent. I could pretend to be aknown legitimate merchant online, or perhaps send a phishing attack asking youfor money. If you fell for the scam and paid me, your money would be gone.After all, bitcoin payments are irreversible.

The other problem with existingbitcoin payments is while they are permanently registered in the blockchain,they’re not easy to document when they’re happening. There is no metadataencoded in the payment information itself that says what it’s for. Neither isthere any information about a return address for refund purposes. Any refundshave to be arranged separately. And if you want to confirm immediately thatyour bitcoin payment reached its recipient, then you have to get separateconfirmation from them.

Mercator Advisory Group (Jeff Green) take:

Payment Request uses digitalcertificates to improve security just as websites do to prove they are ownedand operated by the actual owners of a business, and that should help improvethe security of bitcoin payments between individuals and businesses. But as useof bitcoins increasingly shares many of the same mechanisms used withtraditional electronic-payment methods, the virtual currency loses some of itsluster as a true alternative currency. Moreover, there’s still no reason tobelieve bitcoins will become a mainstream currency, especially as the paymentprocedure moves to increasingly mirror what already is an effective process.And Payment Request still appears to make bitcoin use a more cumbersome processthan just using traditional payment cards to settle purchases.

Read original CoinDesk story here

0
SHARES
0
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedIn

    Analyst Coverage, Payments Data, and News Delivered Daily

    Sign up for the PaymentsJournal Newsletter to get exclusive insight and data from Mercator Advisory Group analysts and industry professionals.

    Must Reads

    eCommerce On Social Media, social commerce

    The Rise of Social Commerce and Social Payments

    February 3, 2023
    Electroneum AnyTask; ETN Crypto, sales enablement

    Ethical Financial Selling: The Role of Compliance Technology and Sales Enablement

    February 2, 2023
    direct deposit

    Nacha Launches Campaign to Reach Millennials on the Benefits of Direct Deposit

    February 1, 2023
    Equinix Helps UK-Based Payments Provider Enable Faster, More Reliable Payments Processing

    Equinix Helps UK-Based Payments Provider Enable Faster, More Reliable Payments Processing

    January 31, 2023
    credit card tumbling

    How to Detect, and Prevent, Credit Card Tumbling

    January 30, 2023
    Why Businesses Need to Adopt Real-Time Payments as a Competitive Differentiator

    Why Businesses Need to Adopt Real-Time Payments as a Competitive Differentiator

    January 27, 2023
    faster payments

    Faster Payments Are Set to Revolutionize Modern Digital Payments

    January 26, 2023
    How AI can Help Manage Payments Risk in 2023

    How AI can Help Manage Payments Risk in 2023

    January 25, 2023

    • Advertise With Us
    • About Us
    • Terms of Use
    • Privacy Policy
    • Subscribe
    ADVERTISEMENT
    • Analysts Coverage
    • Truth In Data
    • Podcasts
    • Videos
    • Industry Opinions
    • News
    • Resources

    © 2022 PaymentsJournal.com

    • Analysts Coverage
    • Truth In Data
    • Podcasts
    • Industry Opinions
    • Faster Payments
    • News
    • Jobs
    • Events
    No Result
    View All Result

      Register to download the Equinix report - Dojo Delivers Fast, Reliable and Secure Card Payments to Businesses on Platform Equinix