Bitcoin - Figures on transaction cost

Here are some figures on transaction costs in cross-border transactions.

Currently the de-facto reference currency in cross-border transactions is the USD.

A recent purchase of USD186 using the credit card resulted in the following line items in AUD:

AUD (from USD) - $202.00
Currency conversion assessment fee: $0.40
International transaction fee: $3.00
Cross border assessment fee: $1.60

Ignoring the spread used in the currency conversion, the transaction cost is about 2.5%. The actual transaction cost taking the spread into account is probably about 3+%

A recent purchase of USD700 using PayPal incurred a fee of $23 (buyer or seller pays). The transaction cost is a whooping 3.3%. I happened to have some USD in my account, so I didn't need to perform currency conversion. PayPal's spread in forex rate is notoriously poor compared to other avenues.

A purchase of 1.45BTC (approximately USD1085 at that time) incurred a transaction fee of 0.0002BTC, which is negligible. Speed rivals that of PayPal. Again, I happened to have some BTC lying around, otherwise conversion from fiat to BTC will incur additional charges, typically in the 2% range.

So if BTC (or some other crypto-currency) replaces USD as the de-facto reference currency for transaction, it should drastically lower the transaction cost. However, the price volatility of BTC is one factor that prevents this from happening. BTC needs to be relatively stable against other currencies before it will be widely adopted for cross-border transactions.

Comments

Update: Line adapter for Ozito Blade Trimmer

Update (Dec 2021): If you access to a 3D printer, I would now recommend this solution , which makes it super easy to replace the trimmer line. I have been using it for a few months now with zero issue.

Attiny85 timer programming using Timer1

This Arduino sketch uses Timer1 to drive the LED blinker: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 /* * Program ATTiny85 to blink LED connected to PB1 at 1s interval. * Assumes ATTiny85 is running at 1MHz internal clock speed. */ #include <avr/io.h> #include <avr/wdt.h> #include <avr/sleep.h> #include <avr/interrupt.h> bool timer1 = false , led = true ; // Interrupt service routine for timer1 ISR(TIMER1_COMPA_vect) { timer1 = true ; } void setup() { // Setup output pins pinMode( 1 , OUTPUT); digitalWrite( 1 , led); set_sleep_mode(SLEEP_MODE_IDLE); // Setup timer1 to interrupt every second TCCR1 = 0 ; // Stop timer TCNT1 = 0 ; // Zero timer GTCCR = _BV(PSR1); // Reset prescaler OCR1A = 243 ; // T = prescaler / 1MHz = 0.004096s; OCR1A = (1s/T) - 1 = 243 OCR1C = 243 ; // Set to same value to reset timer1 to

3D Printer Filament Joiner

I have been looking at various ways of joining 3D printing filaments. One method involves running one end of a filament through a short PTFE tubing, melting it with a lighter or candle, retracting it back into the tubing and immediately plunging the filament to be fused into the tubing: One problem with this method is that you can't really control the temperature at which you melt the filament, so you frequently end up with a brittle joint that breaks upon the slightest bend. Aliexpress even sells a contraption that works along the same line. As it uses a lighter or candle as well, it suffers from the same weakness. I am not even sure why you need a special contraption when a short PTFE tubing will work just as well. Another method involves using shrink tubing/aluminium foil, and a heat gun: But a heat gun is rather expensive, so I wanted to explore other alternatives. The candle + PTFE tubing method actually works quite well when you happen to melt it at the rig

Random Sequence

Search This Blog