Goodbye Visa and Mastercard: 130M Europeans switching to sovereign payment • Hacker News Board

Re: Goodbye Visa and Mastercard: 130M Europeans switching to sovereign payment

#171

Post by swed420 » Wed, May 20, 2026, 2:14 PM UTC

moparts wrote: post #117

swed420 wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Who cares at this point. Nothing has ever managed to unite Europeans as effectively as the orange man’s unrelenting torrent of temper tantrums over the past year and a half. > Americans, we know some of you aren’t crazy. Can’t wait for the grown-ups to be in charge again, but in the mean time we’ll be moving on. Assuming by "grown-ups" you mean Team Blue, then you'll be disappointed, because they manufactured conse…

Yeah. Couldn’t agree more. Trump and Obama are the same.

Nobody said same. In fact, on a surface level, they're easy to view as polar opposites. One must critically examine beneath the surface to see how they're both on the same team (capital).

Re: Goodbye Visa and Mastercard: 130M Europeans switching to sovereign payment

#172

Post by al_borland » Wed, May 20, 2026, 2:14 PM UTC

atonse wrote: post #30

petcat wrote: post #13

> A Frenchman using Wero will be able to transfer money to a Spanish friend on Bizum, with the same simplicity as a domestic payment. Have you seen the new money app? It's on Tubu. It's on Weeno. I'm on Dippy but my friend is on Poob. Poob has it for you.

LOL thank you domain squatters. I can't think of any other reason why startups often always have the most ridiculous names.

It’s not just the domain squatters. They have to find a name they can get with Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, etc in addition to the domain.

Re: Goodbye Visa and Mastercard: 130M Europeans switching to sovereign payment

#173

Post by nottorp » Wed, May 20, 2026, 2:14 PM UTC

Xirdus wrote: post #86

kccqzy wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a 3DSecure system for existing Visa, Mastercard, and American Express. After typing your card numbers, the transaction doesn’t immediately go through but you are also redirected to the bank’s system. Banks can ask you to use a hardware token, an app, or any other second factor to approve the transaction. It’s a shame that this system isn’t ubiquitous for the rest of us not in EU.

The problem with 3D Secure is that the merchant can unilaterally decide not to use it, which defeats the whole purpose of 3D Secure.

I tend to associate ignoring 3D Secure with Stripe. In the name of "less friction" of course.

Re: Goodbye Visa and Mastercard: 130M Europeans switching to sovereign payment

#174

Post by lxgr » Wed, May 20, 2026, 2:14 PM UTC

karel-3d wrote: post #163

Shalomboy wrote: post #45

I'm legitimately curious how these American payment companies held onto their worldwide dominance for so long. I'm used to seeing the sign at restaurants of all the other cards they accept, but for so long I've only ever seen Amex, Discover, Visa, and Mastercard in folks' hands.

Amex is not very popular in Europe. Discover... I am not sure, not that much. Visa and MasterCard are everywhere though

Really depends on the country. Discover acceptance is actually relatively good globally, as they have interconnections to Diners Club, JCB and China UnionPay.

Re: Goodbye Visa and Mastercard: 130M Europeans switching to sovereign payment

#175

Post by AdamN » Wed, May 20, 2026, 2:14 PM UTC

madradavid wrote: post #111

mcv wrote: post #43

Wero is basically an EU-wide version of the Dutch iDeal system, which in my opinion is the gold standard of how internet payment should work. I shouldn't have to fill in any card numbers on the site of the merchant (which is unsafe). Instead, the payment should redirect me to my bank, where I authorize the payment through my own bank's security system. I've always been annoyed by the need to type in sensitive card in…

Interestingly in a number of African Countries (Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania etc) , we have “Mobile Money”, Payments are instant, via USSD, no internet required, I can even pay online using USSD push.This is a classical example of humans using what they have to build what they need , no fancy internet enabled smart phones required. I can send money anytime instantly to my grandma deep in the village. She can withdraw from…

That's still a man in the middle coordinating the payments (mpesa, etc...) and essentially holding both sides of the transaction. When you send money to somebody with mobile money you're sending it to the mobile network operator who then let's the other person know so they can move the money to somebody else (or cashout or leave it there).

It's not really a federated system because you can't for instance send money from mpesa in kenya to a different provider in uganda.

Re: Goodbye Visa and Mastercard: 130M Europeans switching to sovereign payment

#176

Post by lxgr » Wed, May 20, 2026, 2:14 PM UTC

Keyframe wrote: post #58

Shalomboy wrote: post #45

I'm legitimately curious how these American payment companies held onto their worldwide dominance for so long. I'm used to seeing the sign at restaurants of all the other cards they accept, but for so long I've only ever seen Amex, Discover, Visa, and Mastercard in folks' hands.

geopolitics, dollar, and then network effect. in that order.

What bearing does the dollar have on any of this exactly?

Re: Goodbye Visa and Mastercard: 130M Europeans switching to sovereign payment

#177

Post by madspindel » Wed, May 20, 2026, 2:15 PM UTC

bsimpson wrote: post #39

wink wrote: post #18

Totally misleading. Without reading all of it: MAYBE it means: it is/will be enabled for 130m people. And even those of us who have activated it, have hardly used it for the most part, or hve concerns.

It was weird to see them bragging about €6MM volume in the first year.

That number must be wrong? Swish volume during one month was €4759MM as comparison.

Re: Goodbye Visa and Mastercard: 130M Europeans switching to sovereign payment

#178

Post by arpinum » Wed, May 20, 2026, 2:16 PM UTC

chatmasta wrote: post #141

arpinum wrote: post #71

This is the EU equivalent of Zelle, but pushing into merchant payments and owned and run by the banks. When the telcos tried to compete with the cloud providers by offering OpenStack they learned the business wasn't as simple as offering 10-15 services with some racks. I can imagine the same hidden complexity for payment rails On the other hand regulations have taken too much power away from merchants and Wero could…

UK Open Banking is a counter example to this argument. It’s been a huge success. Transfers between accounts are seamless, and I never need to authorize Plaid to maintain a permanent session in a headless Chromium instance reading my bank account. The APIs are well-defined, universally supported, and include authorization scopes for viewing balance, authorizing transfers, etc. That said, I don’t do many p2p payments i…

I have not heard about UK Open Banking rails for merchants being popular. You are talking about P2P? the article is about challenging Visa/Mastercard.

Re: Goodbye Visa and Mastercard: 130M Europeans switching to sovereign payment

#179

Post by tlogan » Wed, May 20, 2026, 2:16 PM UTC

So this is basically the EU version of Zelle? Basically a way to transfer money between parties who already have established trust. Am I understanding that correctly?

But I am confused about how this relates to Visa and Mastercard. Those systems are used for payments between parties that have not necessarily established trust.

Re: Goodbye Visa and Mastercard: 130M Europeans switching to sovereign payment

#180

Post by swed420 » Wed, May 20, 2026, 2:16 PM UTC

nozzlegear wrote: post #112

swed420 wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Who cares at this point. Nothing has ever managed to unite Europeans as effectively as the orange man’s unrelenting torrent of temper tantrums over the past year and a half. > Americans, we know some of you aren’t crazy. Can’t wait for the grown-ups to be in charge again, but in the mean time we’ll be moving on. Assuming by "grown-ups" you mean Team Blue, then you'll be disappointed, because they manufactured conse…

This is just more trite "Muh both sides" doomerism.

No it isn't.

It's safe to assume you've either drunk the kool-aid or have something to gain monetarily (even if falsely assumed) by allowing the illusion to persist. Either way, you're literally part of the problem, as is anyone else who still takes this system seriously.