There is a new service in the Bitcoin world guaranteed to spark a few new debates. The LocalTabs platform is designed to find others in the Bitcoin community to share tabs and reduce transaction fees. It is a remarkable service, yet it is unclear if it is actually designed to make transactions cheaper. Instead, this seems like another jab at Bitcoin’s lack of scaling first and foremost.
LocalTabs is an Interesting Service
The concept of LocalTabs is pretty interesting, although it remains to be seen if people will – or should – even use it in the first place. According to its website, LocalTabs is an online local business directory for Bitcoin users. Anyone can create and save tabs, as well as share them with the general public. Shared tabs should be subject to lower Bitcoin transaction fees. It may not sound like an appealing service to most people, though.
Moreover, the unprofessional website design doesn’t instill much confidence either. This only raises the question as to whether or not this service can be trusted for this particular purpose. Until some more locations are added to the list, it is highly doubtful anyone will ever use the platform. The idea certainly has a lot of potential, but it may not necessarily find its place in the market.
It’s likely that this project is designed to show that Bitcoin fees are stupidly high in some cases. Bitcoin is not necessarily suited for making normal purchases, such as foods or drinks. Slow confirmation times and high transaction fees make it far less appealing as a payment method in this regard. Granted, all that will change with the Lightning Network, but there is still no official release date set for that technology.
People have been complaining about Bitcoin fees for quite some time now. In most cases, one can easily send money across the network at a very low fee, assuming the payment doesn’t need to be confirmed within ten minutes. Even then, it is still possible to get the necessary confirmations with a minimal fee, although it seems one’s mileage may vary in this regard. Bitcoin is an expensive way to move money around in a swift manner, for the time being.
It is evident this will remain a topic of substantial debate for quite some time to come. Most people envision Bitcoin as both a cheaper and a faster solution compared to more traditional payment methods. These days, one can get one or the other, but both simultaneously is more difficult. It is evident a solution needs to be found, but that is much easier said than done. Segregated Witness has not made any major impact in this regard just yet.
In the end, it remains to be seen if LocalTabs will become a platform worthy of attention. No one knows for sure if it is legitimate or what its real purpose is right now. It doesn’t seem to be a professional platform by any means, but Craigslist doesn’t look all that professional either. What is evident is that creative solutions for avoiding high transaction fees will always be in high demand.
