I'd like to take this opportunity to share with you all that Wero is called Wero because Euro is pronounced "you-ro" and when you share your you-ro it becomes a we-ro.
Never realized this, mind blown :-)
Goodbye Visa and Mastercard: 130M Europeans switching to sovereign payment
201–210 of 811 posts
Re: Goodbye Visa and Mastercard: 130M Europeans switching to sovereign payment
#202Earlier quoted context omitted.
ahahah! so true. those names are silly. also, French and Spanish can already send money for free via IBAN / SEPA
That's not the point at all. Currently I'm using paypal to send money to friends when we split dinner or share other costs. I'd like to use a similar European service instead and not go through a ceremony to open my banking app, initiate transfer, write the recipient's IBAN, confirm and wait a day for the transfer to take place.
Entering an IBAN once in a blue moon is a cheap price to pay to not be the US's bitch imho
Re: Goodbye Visa and Mastercard: 130M Europeans switching to sovereign payment
#203Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 f…
Actually you can send money (cross border payments ) to another country that also has mobile money, I can send money to a Kenyan, Tanzanian etc all I need is their Phone number.
I am not sure what you mean by “holding both sides of the transaction “, when you send me money it appears in my balance (which I can check via a USSD query), it’s essentially a bank account but on USSD and sms. A lot of cross border payments are now settled via USSD. Hell I can now get a Visa/Mastercard by just dailing a code and I will have payment details with my name and address.
Re: Goodbye Visa and Mastercard: 130M Europeans switching to sovereign payment
#204Canada chiming in, Interac rules above anything else.
Re: Goodbye Visa and Mastercard: 130M Europeans switching to sovereign payment
#205Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't think it explains the "cat walks on keyboard" brand names for cheap Chinese goods on Amazon.
The gibberish brand names on Amazon are a formulaic way to streamline trademark registration which Amazon requires for some features on their selling platform. https://stemerlaw.com/2025/07/16/why-are-amazon-brand-names-...
I wonder if a name with CJK characters can be trademarked?
Re: Goodbye Visa and Mastercard: 130M Europeans switching to sovereign payment
#206Earlier quoted context omitted.
PIX is also better because it gives control back to the central bank (as it was with cash) and not private industry although they are providing the service. The central bank controls what payments are permitted by what laws exist, not some risk management system that has decided that your legal purchase is too risky or some foreign state has applied sanctions against you.
Wero is run by the banks themselves, which are in turn controlled/restricted by the central bank. I don't think there's a meaningful difference on that front. The European ECB isn't really in a position to directly offer services to people, and relying on every country's central banks to cooperate will take decades.
The central bank is governed by a direct mandate from the government (and, effectively, the entire population, when dealing with a democracy). Commercial and investment banks are beholden to their board and shareholders. There's a clear conflict of interest in trying to dump a service that should be available to everyone onto a business with narrower concerns.
Re: Goodbye Visa and Mastercard: 130M Europeans switching to sovereign payment
#207Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wero is not French, but it has replaced France's Paylib. It's pretty awesome and seems to quickly have replaced all other apps (Lydia, PayPal) for small payments in my friend and family circles. I'm excited to see it expand to PoS payments.
From what I understand, Wero is identical to iDeal, which has been the standard Dutch internet payment system for decades. So I'm a bit surprised to see France claim ownership.
Wero is a initiative of a collection of banks from a handful of countries. Every country already had something like this, in some form of another, and now all these systems are getting merged into a common system.
No single country can claim ownership because it's an EU initiative. iDeal was one of the first and relatively easy systems across the EU, but it's hardly the predecessor.
Wero also does peer-to-peer transfers which iDeal doesn't (unless you use iDeal to pay for tikkies but that's still two apps). The new system is not just an iDeal rebranding.
Re: Goodbye Visa and Mastercard: 130M Europeans switching to sovereign payment
#208Earlier quoted context omitted.
PIX is also better because it gives control back to the central bank (as it was with cash) and not private industry although they are providing the service. The central bank controls what payments are permitted by what laws exist, not some risk management system that has decided that your legal purchase is too risky or some foreign state has applied sanctions against you.
That sounds a little authoritarian for many Western countries, I imagine.
Brazil is on the West, fyi.
Re: Goodbye Visa and Mastercard: 130M Europeans switching to sovereign payment
#209Earlier quoted context omitted.
> After typing your card numbers Yes, but the whole point of Wero is that you don't have to type in a bunch of info that can be easily stolen. With Wero (and many other international solutions), you just scan a code with your phone, and your banking app handles the transactions. The existing legacy solutions are just duct tape on an existing system.
So you have to use a phone or does it work without one? Does it handle credit card payments?
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Re: Goodbye Visa and Mastercard: 130M Europeans switching to sovereign payment
#210Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wero is not French, but it has replaced France's Paylib. It's pretty awesome and seems to quickly have replaced all other apps (Lydia, PayPal) for small payments in my friend and family circles. I'm excited to see it expand to PoS payments.
Can you confirm people in france actually use wero? I had heard of it every so often but basically zero people actually use it, my revolut app has a feature to use wero but never used it. I mean would be great, getting rid of CC fees could literally lower grocery prices by 1-2%.
Every single friend to friend transfer around me is done via wero these days. And between business SEPA more and more.