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 I used to be able to pay this online retailer in Bitcoin. If I remember correctly they used Coingate to process crypto transactions. Last week I went to make a purchase and found they had removed crypto as an option so I contacted them and told them I was disappointed I couldn't pay with Bitcoin anymore. This is the response I got:

> Hello Crizzo

> Thank you for reaching out to us, and I apologize for any inconvenience caused by the removal of the Bitcoin payment option. We understand your disappointment, and I'd like to provide some context.

> Back in 2014, we were excited about the possibilities of cyptocurrencies, including Bitcoin. At that time, we became one of the first major payments companies to support Bitcoin payments Our hope was that Bitcoin could serve as a decentralized substrate for online transactions, especially in regions with limited credit card penetration or high credit card fees.

> However, over the years, Bitcoin has evolved. Transaction confirmation times have increased, leading to higher failure rates for fiat-denominated transactions. Additionally, fees have risen significantly, making regular Bitcoin transactions as expensive as bank wires. As a result, the desire from our customers to accept Bitcoin has decreased, and revenues from Bitcoin transactions have declined.

> Given these challenges, we made the difficult decision to wind down support for Bitcoin payments. Despite this, we remain optimistic about cryptocurrencies overall. We continue to explore the crypto space

>If you have any further questions or need assistance with alternative payment methods, please don't hesitate to reach out. We appreciate your understanding and look forward to serving you in other ways.

> Kind regards

> Mike

This is from affect3D.com which is a store that sells 3D animated porn. I think he may be referring to the content creators that sell stuff in the store as the "customers" that don't want to accept Bitcoin, not the people who buy the content. 

Anyway it's disappointing. #Bitcoin still has a long way to go before it can be used transactionally it seems. It's still the best SoV to ever exist at least.  
 If only we had lightning. 😠 
 They did accept lightning, but I think it was an issue for the content creators when they got paid in crypto and needed to convert it to fiat. Lots of friction going that way, especially if they aren't as familiar with the space as we all are.  
 Ah man. That sucks. 
 We're continuing to build for this optimal payments future.  
 Still many do not know about lightning. Especially in crypto circles 
 That's weird because lots of retailers are currently accepting bitcoin and it works better than credit cards 
 Why would anyone want to buy stuff on-chain anyway? They should accept lightning. Blowing it 
 They did, I payed with lightning. I think it has more to do with content creators not wanting to accept a bunch of small random crypto payments infrequently.  
 tell them about lightning, zaprite, and opennode