In the threads discussing fee structure there have been frequent demands that we should lower our fees to match our competitors like Bitcoin and Paypal.
I think this is wrong point of view because we have now or we will have in the near future a better service than our closest competitors.
Making a superior product should be our main focus on competition. People are ready to pay bigger fees if they get a product worth of their money.
Lowering fees might get us some users more faster, but it won't necessarily make us more profitable.
So let's do a comparison. Feel free to add any kind of pluses or minuses you can think of. Try to think more of the payments and not the exchange business (we can to that later). Add more comparisons to other cryptocurrencies and payment processors.
Bitcoin+ Price stable smartcoins
+ Faster
+ Better transaction capability
+ Stealth transfers
+ Recurring and scheduled payments
- Way more users (network effect)
+/- Transfer fees are cheap for the Bitcoin user right now, but Bitcoin's business model is fucked up. Payments are subsidized by inflation that will end in the long run (next block reward halving is coming next year). Transfer fees have to go up some day. Lately the real
cost per transaction has been 8-10 dollars. If Bitshares wants to lower transaction fee to the same that Bitcoin has, we need to think how we can make money after that. Is the transaction business going to be subsidized from reserve pool? What if the reserve pool goes empty? Think of the bigger picture here, not just the point of view of a price sensitive customer.
Paypal+ No cancelled/refunded payments
+ No need to tie account to credit card or bank account
+ Anybody can open an account anywhere in the world
+ No freezed funds
+ Stealth transfers
- Way more users and merchants (network effect)
+/- Paypal's customer service sucks and people hate it. Bitshares doesn't have any official customer service.