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Tiny, cheap smart speakers unlocked the rise of digital payments in India

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Re: Tiny, cheap smart speakers unlocked the rise of digital payments in India

#131

Post by ryzvonusef »

lxgr wrote: post #75
fandorin wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

do you think such payment flow would work in the US / in the EU as well? I know that for example in Sweden Swish is super popular and you can pay with it in stores by scanning QR code (and then showing your phone to the merchant) - seems like such device could fit there perfectly.

It definitely could, but I really hope it doesn't. Contactless payments are both more convenient and more secure than (even dynamic) QR code payments. (Whether the device manufacturer should have a monopoly on NFC-based payments is a different question, and one under active regulatory scrutiny at that.)

So, in addition to the QR code, add a NFC device to the speaker, the rest of the story is the same, IMHO

Re: Tiny, cheap smart speakers unlocked the rise of digital payments in India

#132

Post by ryzvonusef »

djhworld wrote: post #84
ryzvonusef wrote: post #33

video of it in action (english subtitles) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUR84Qz0KbM

Interesting thank you for the video. I was going to comment on this post wondering how it's more efficient than just the merchant looking at a fixed screen which shows the incoming transactions. But the video demonstrates why the audio interface is better, it allows them to multi-task. Sort of like how listening to radio/podcasts doesn't tie you down to somewhere like watching the TV does.

Exactly! I expounded in a comment below, but among the benefits, imagine being elbow deep in batter and having to check transactions, better a speaker that tells you.

Re: Tiny, cheap smart speakers unlocked the rise of digital payments in India

#133

Post by ryzvonusef »

HeavyFeather wrote: post #51
ryzvonusef wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

from my research, here is what I've found: 1- The govt insists the payments be done on their national backbone, which works on 0 markup, so companies have to find different avenues for revenue 2- The device is essentially a mobile phone with no display(newest version has a small pocket-calculator sized lcd, but most do not) and just four buttons: power, volume up, volume down, and repeat last message. It takes a SIM…

> it would never work Ask Thailand and their QR-code based payments, TrueMoney and "Thai QR", because that's exactly how they work. Maybe scammers are less prevalent in Thailand than in India so they go by trust, even in 7-Elevens.

I imagine in thailand, the person elbow deep in batter is not the person checking payments?

I wonder how it works for one-person stalls...

Re: Tiny, cheap smart speakers unlocked the rise of digital payments in India

#135

Post by s_dev »

creatonez wrote: post #134

Why is it taking 10 minutes to confirm payment...? Edit: For some reason it's mentioned nowhere in the article, but it's because these are cryptocurrency transactions

Another user is claiming:

>Not mentioned in the article but I asked a shopkeeper why they use it. Answer is fraud. Earlier, customers would download a "fake" app, which miciked online gateway's UI. Customer would punch in money, and show to shopkeeper that "payment went through". Customer takes goods with them and leaves. Shopkeeper looses money.

I don't think half of India is using crypto currency transactions everyday. So this explanation makes more sense.

Re: Tiny, cheap smart speakers unlocked the rise of digital payments in India

#136

Post by eru »

mplewis wrote: post #106
nngjmppkjhfd wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why even consider that another standard could be in use, like others have pointed out in the thread, when you have political priors to confirm? Stay classy HN!

What? It’s widely known that over half of American adults read at or below a sixth grade level. This is a result from 2020 so it shouldn’t be news to you.

The astonishing fact in need of explaining was the absolute American statistic, but why it was smaller than the rates for eg India.

Re: Tiny, cheap smart speakers unlocked the rise of digital payments in India

#137

Post by eru »

nativespecies wrote: post #19
t8sr wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought you were joking about India surpassing the US in literacy rates, and then I looked it up. It's 75 - 85% depending on how you count. What?! How is this number not 99.9%? Developed countries are at 100% or minus rounding error. Even Canada is at 99%, and that's next door. What is going on in the US?

Public education has been gutted for decades in this country.

Public K-12 education spending increased from 2.3% of American GDP in 1950 to 5.5% of GDP in 2015. [0]

See https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/us-education-expenditure-... (as linked from https://freddiedeboer.substack.com/p/education-commentary-is... )

Educational achievement in the US has been roughly the same as in the 1950s. It seems almost as if public education doesn't matter?

[0] Keep in mind that American real GDP per capital increased enormously over time as well. See https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/A939RX0Q048SBEA

Re: Tiny, cheap smart speakers unlocked the rise of digital payments in India

#138

Post by eru »

SaltyGoodness wrote: post #50
misterprime wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your post includes some good commentary identifying issues with the educational system, specifically about fostering a healthy, effective learning environment as well as commentary about mis-allocating resources. However, it also includes lots of specific blaming and accusations which, to me, distracted from the helpful elements. I'm curious if you think the best path forward would be to keep pushing for the federal…

How does Finland do it? Copy them as much as possible, since it's clearly working. Gaps in Finlands system? Pay experts to figure it out. I don't claim to be an expert - you don't need to be, to see how bad the current system is. If we can afford $20 trillion on interest payments for illegal wars on the other side of the planet, we can figure out how to fund schools. Not sure what you mean by "specific blaming and ac…

> If we can afford $20 trillion on interest payments for illegal wars on the other side of the planet, we can figure out how to fund schools.

This assumes that schooling makes a difference.

Re: Tiny, cheap smart speakers unlocked the rise of digital payments in India

#140

Post by flerchin »

CyberDildonics wrote: post #53
flerchin wrote: post #2

Literacy rates in India look to be ~80% and climbing about 1% per year. Obviously it'll reach an asymptote, but it's looking like India already surpasses the US in this regard. Of course, given the large population, more Indians are illiterate than there are people in almost every nation. Nonetheless, wouldn't this solution be quite niche? Source: https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/IND/india/literacy-rat...

> Obviously it'll reach an asymptote I think you mean the increase will level off. An "asymptote" would mean it is always getting closer to some target number, and there is no reason that would be 'obviously' true.

"Obviously, it'll asymptotically approach an upper bound and level off." I do think my meaning was clear, but yes you're correct.
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