The problem is though, why? Unless you have a job or a stable income that pays in BTC, there is really no point to make micro-transactions using the lightning network, because you'll need to spend your fiat currency to buy BTC, and then use your purchased BTC to buy an item, when it would be easier for the vendor to accept fiat, so it's just a waste of time to go through that process (even if we are pretending there is no fee).

Bitcoin will likely never be mainstream and used to buy consumables because tap and pay is just easier and cheaper to use. BTC is probably better to be spent on items that are worth a bit, on sites like Amazon and G2a.

For crypto to be used in everyday transactions, the blockchain needs to be able to confirm transactions in seconds and also needs to have very low fees.

I don't believe spending bitcoin for small purchases will ever happen. Bitcoin is settling into SoV narrative. It's an important driver for cryptocurrency adoption. Bitcoin will be used for settling SoV type of transactions. For example, I save money to buy real estate in Bitcoin. When I have enough and decide to buy a house, I'd convert my bitcoin into real estate. It encourages HODL behavior. Bitcoin exists because it has inflation nemesis, fiat currencies. If Bitcoin ever gobbled up all of the world money, we'd be in the same dark place as inflationary fiat system. In some sense, Bitcoin is as evil as fiat.

I think the monetary system will consist 2 contradictory forces: deflationary and inflationary.

Disclaimer: I'm working on a digital inflationary crypto (https://bitflate.github.io/post/2019/04/14/bitflate-cryptocurrency-with-constant-inflation.html).

.."if it was possible"... then why not? Besides, I already using it at some of the services.

But for a cup of coffee, how much the cost of it we are talking here? Is using and paying with BTC does make sense here or just pay it instead with some few bucks on our pocket which is for me way faster and convenient.

Will treat it as an alternative payment since on the other hand, I have other payment sources e.g fiat salary, credit cards. As much as possible, I will consider paying with crypto only if I'm run out of options.

I'm sure there are a decent amount of spenders out there. By this point there'll be a lot of people sitting on free money. Spending free money feels jolly nice.

It's not the driver or cornerstone of this whole thing though, it's a byproduct of a reasonable size. And for some it may be the only significant amount of money they have so they may have no alternative but to liquidate some.

It depends on the timing - spending during the bear market hurts, because soon afterwards you'll start regretting it, thinking "those coins are worth 4-5 times more now". Spending in the bull run can also hurt, when in one week the price is already 20% up. I currently want to buy a few things, but I wait for Bitcoin to go back to at least $14k.

Coffee is a small purchase, so the effects that I described would only amount of a couple of $$ of potential value lost, but it can quickly add up if we are talking about buying coffee every day. So, to me this perma-bullishness definitely makes Bitcoin less attractive as a currency to spend. Maybe in 5-10 years when the market will stabilize, I'll be buying coffees with no regrets via Lightning Network.

I convert most of my fiat into BTC regardless, and often times when I want to make a bigger purchase, I have to sell some BTC to get money. So, I can't buyback coins that I spend like many people advice, and it affects my spending habits. I still do spend Bitcoin, because all these years without buying anything for myself would suck, but I'm being very conservative with it.

It doesn't matter what the original purpose was. What counts is what the collective decides it's going to be. At the moment it's not a currency. Maybe we'll move towards it but it's far from being in the bag. The most likely is still gold 2.0 but things could pivot again.

That's the key question: If the Bitcoin evolves into a circular one, where spenders earn most Bitcoins they have (and do not buy them at exchanges), then - and only then - Bitcoin can also evolve into a currency.

LN can be a crucial element here: Lightning is a tool which is able to facilitate some purchases, and once it becomes established there could be a "domino effect", encouraging spending in a very similar way to what prepaid cards achieve. The coins you have locked one time on LN, are coins you'll be willing to spend eventually. Thus, businesses for the first time have a tool to measure the potential of the "Bitcoin as a currency"-economy. If this economy is growing, then there will be more businesses trying to enter that market, which means more people earn their money in BTC. And so on - the money could start to really circulate, instead of being mainly bought and sold at exchanges.

Its the difference of knowing and not knowing Austrian economics. Once you read how deflationary economy works, you will abandon your project and join Bitcoin.

Sorry to crash your illusions, but the world is full of inflationary currencies, precisely because of the dominant Chicago school dogma, there are even people scared of deflation simply because they don't know better.

The less we want is yet another inflationary coin, constant or not. That is one of the main fails of Ethereum.

You don't know this but I'm a constant user of bitcoin for small purchases, they are not done directly in bitcoin at the shops because its impossible in my country, but i exchange the bare minimum into fiat before going out. I know perfectly well in an ideal world this last step of exchanging into fiat would disappear completely, and i cannot be more happy for that day to come.

Why is that? Because my only source of income is in Bitcoin, no bitcoin no food. Why no change large amount into fiat? Because my country's fiat is the worst of the world, keep it one day and tomorrow has half its purchasing power, you want to get rid of it asap, and hold as little as possible. To me its in the way, but there is still a State and their impositions in the way (not to mention that same State ruined everyone's lives when going hyperinflation, because they can make coins out of thin air whenever they want. This is something Bitcoin erases, something your project doesn't do.

This is why Bitcoin has value, and your project doesn't. Please don't bother bringing more inflationary altcoins, the few that already exist are bad enough.

Bitcoin has already chose a path that enables small purchases, its an off the chain solution called Lightning Network. For me this is more convenient than hitting localbitcoins, so yes, I'd love to use it at shops that way. Not very sure how a light LN wallet would work, but I'm waiting for Electrum to add LN which they are actually doing.