Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Expanding access to the future of work with crypto payouts

stripe.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 146 posts

Re: Expanding access to the future of work with crypto payouts

#51

Post by boh »

As companies continually erode employee benefits and aggressively seek out ever cheaper labor, we have to continually be reminded how innovative and great this "massive shift enabled in large part by new technology" is going to be. Now you're going to get paid in unregulated tokens, isn't that amazing!

And guess what? Not using actual money also let's them access "millions of talented freelancers live in countries where it’s hard, if not impossible, to open a local bank account". That's great because those workers also tend to live in countries with lax or non existent labor laws. These new inroads in exploitation is just another great win for innovation! How bright our future gets every day!

Re: Expanding access to the future of work with crypto payouts

#52

Post by houstonn »

colesantiago wrote: post #2

It is a massive mistake that Stripe is offering anything in the crypto space as everyone and Stripe knows it is full of fraud, money laundering, scams and it is completely unregulated. I look forward to the day that Stripe will get investigated for all of the above with this and end up like Paypal, eventually freezing or banning these accounts. Crypto does not offer anything new at all. EDIT: It seems Stripe and Cryp…

No wireless. Less space than a Nomad. Lame.

Re: Expanding access to the future of work with crypto payouts

#53

Post by civilized »

boh wrote: post #51

As companies continually erode employee benefits and aggressively seek out ever cheaper labor, we have to continually be reminded how innovative and great this "massive shift enabled in large part by new technology" is going to be. Now you're going to get paid in unregulated tokens, isn't that amazing! And guess what? Not using actual money also let's them access "millions of talented freelancers live in countries wh…

Everybody wants to talk about how bad the sweatshop is. Nobody wants to talk about the poverty that was so bad, people jumped at the chance to work in the sweatshop.

Re: Expanding access to the future of work with crypto payouts

#54

Post by boh »

civilized wrote: post #53
boh wrote: post #51

As companies continually erode employee benefits and aggressively seek out ever cheaper labor, we have to continually be reminded how innovative and great this "massive shift enabled in large part by new technology" is going to be. Now you're going to get paid in unregulated tokens, isn't that amazing! And guess what? Not using actual money also let's them access "millions of talented freelancers live in countries wh…

Everybody wants to talk about how bad the sweatshop is. Nobody wants to talk about the poverty that was so bad, people jumped at the chance to work in the sweatshop.

Yes they do. They love to talk about that and do all the time. It helps make exploiting poor people with limited protections seem moral.

Don't forget to mention how employing a person to work 16 hours a day making clothes or a phone helps feed their family.

Re: Expanding access to the future of work with crypto payouts

#55

Post by rafaelm »

refsab wrote: post #33
missedthecue wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is this marketplace named?

It's Binance P2P. You can transfer crypto directly into local currency. It uses local residents as liquidity providers.

Yep that's it. I just didn't want it to look like I was shilling something in the comments :)

Locally, Binance P2P is used a lot for remittances, and plenty of establishments use it as a way to receive payments as well. I've seen the Binance QR code in a bunch of restaurants and autoparts stores, for example

I used it earlier this year to send money to my sister in Argentina. Super fast, no fuss.

Re: Expanding access to the future of work with crypto payouts

#56

Post by skybrian »

jfghi wrote: post #18
karaterobot wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Crypto is very popular among people working in rich countries who send remittances back to their families in other countries. That's a legitimate use, a very popular use, and is obviously what Stripe is going for here.

Once the remittance is received, how is it then exchanged for the currency the recipient needs?

Here's a pretty in-depth article about how things work in Argentina. I know nothing other than what's in the article, but apparently, many of the local black market exchanges ("cuevas") use cryptocurrency internally (instead of carrying stacks of US dollars around on motorcycles) and will exchange crypto for cash for their customers.

https://www.freethink.com/technology/crypto-argentina-black-...

Re: Expanding access to the future of work with crypto payouts

#57

Post by XorNot »

boh wrote: post #54
civilized wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everybody wants to talk about how bad the sweatshop is. Nobody wants to talk about the poverty that was so bad, people jumped at the chance to work in the sweatshop.

Yes they do. They love to talk about that and do all the time. It helps make exploiting poor people with limited protections seem moral. Don't forget to mention how employing a person to work 16 hours a day making clothes or a phone helps feed their family.

"that child worker could be an important income source to help feed their family"

I've heard that in polite settings when I was younger, and my absolute rage at it has only grown.

Re: Expanding access to the future of work with crypto payouts

#58

Post by mudrockbestgirl »

djbusby wrote: post #30
lawgimenez wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure where you got this info from but my relatives in the US sends money via Xoom. Nobody's touching crypto.

TransferWise, now just Wise works awesome too.

Not only much more expensive and slower than crypto, but also not permissionless. I had funds frozen up for before because of an identity/location verification misunderstanding. It was all sorted out through customer support, but it took a week. Closed my account after that because I don't want to take that risk, I just want to transfer funds without middleman hassle.

Great as long as it works for you. Just wait until you yourself are stuck in a situation such as "Google locked my account and I can't reach support", "Stripe banned my business for no good reason" or "Wise froze my funds" - you literally see these threads on HN every week. Crypto suddenly starts to look a lot more appealing once you've experienced these situations yourself.

Re: Expanding access to the future of work with crypto payouts

#59

Post by skybrian »

telephone2 wrote: post #39
colesantiago wrote: post #2

It is a massive mistake that Stripe is offering anything in the crypto space as everyone and Stripe knows it is full of fraud, money laundering, scams and it is completely unregulated. I look forward to the day that Stripe will get investigated for all of the above with this and end up like Paypal, eventually freezing or banning these accounts. Crypto does not offer anything new at all. EDIT: It seems Stripe and Cryp…

People seem to forget that 6 trillion dollars of liquidity was injected into the US monetary supply in 2020 (close to a 50% increase in the total USD monetary supply). The 2008 financial bailout popularized by "The Big Short" pales in comparison to what happened in 2020. While there are situations where creating liquidity via monetary policy is necessary - it sucks that it directly impacts the savings and wages of ev…

USDC isn't a inflation hedge. It's pegged to the dollar, after all. Looking at the chart, Bitcoin is worse than an inflation hedge for anyone who bought in 2021 or later.

If you're worried about inflation then I-bonds seem like a less risky way to handle this. (Though the limits are too low for many people, and the website is pretty bad.)

Re: Expanding access to the future of work with crypto payouts

#60

Post by civilized »

boh wrote: post #54
civilized wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everybody wants to talk about how bad the sweatshop is. Nobody wants to talk about the poverty that was so bad, people jumped at the chance to work in the sweatshop.

Yes they do. They love to talk about that and do all the time. It helps make exploiting poor people with limited protections seem moral. Don't forget to mention how employing a person to work 16 hours a day making clothes or a phone helps feed their family.

I share your moral objections to exploitative working conditions. But most of us aren't doing those people any good. Work opportunities, on the other hand -- even exploitative ones -- do seem to be doing them good, if they are voluntarily choosing to do them. I think that should humble and temper all of our moral sensibilities a little, when we are attempting to judge a development like this as Good or Bad.

Here is something doing good for poor people, and here we are, doing nothing for those poor people, judging it. That feels off to me.

If this was Stripe Slavery, I would have no problem calling it Bad. I don't support slavery. But empowering people to engage in voluntary working arrangements -- it can be abused, sure, but Bad? I'm skeptical.

Post reply on HN