Publikations-Information

Download

Michael Froehlich, Vega Vermehren, Jose Adrian, Florian Alt, Albrecht Schmidt
Implementation and Evaluation of a Point-Of-Sale Payment System Using Bitcoin Lightning
In NordiCHI '22: Proceedings of the 12th Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction:. October 20, 2022. Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA. (bib)

Cryptocurrencies have the potential to improve financial inclusion. However, the technology is complex to understand and difficult to use. Human-Computer-Interaction (HCI) can play a vital role in improving accessibility by identifying and overcoming challenges that hold users back. However, most HCI studies have focused only on Bitcoin and Ethereum so far. Newer blockchains promise transaction speeds comparable to traditional payment systems, enabling the use of cryptocurrencies as a medium of exchange for everyday transactions. To explore the viability of cryptocurrency-based point-of-sale solutions through a human-centered lens, we used Bitcoin Lightning to implement a payment system and evaluated it in a mixed-methods study. Our results show that Bitcoin Lightning is a usable alternative to traditional solutions and that friction aggregates at the interface to existing payment systems, i.e. when purchasing Bitcoin. We discuss qualitative insights and derive implications for deploying cryptocurrencies as payment solutions.