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WhatsApp Launches Instant Cryptocurrency Payments in the US

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Re: WhatsApp Launches Instant Cryptocurrency Payments in the US

#31

Post by ignoramous »

thehappypm wrote: post #22
xyzzy123 wrote: post #14

If you think a bit bigger and imagine a worldwide audience (basically the defining feature of whatsapp), the initial killer apps here are remittances and the ability to build out marketplaces and stores. Assume the goal is global wechat-like commerce. IMHO this is huge. The regulatory interactions will be formidable because every country will want to get its fingers into this, money and who gets it is ultimately poli…

What makes it so huge in your opinion? PayPal and Venmo and the like already make this very easy, internationally there are some challenges, but it’s not technical limitations so much as legal/compliance which doesn’t go away with blockchain.

> PayPal and Venmo and the like already make this very easy

They make it easy because they abstract away the underlying mechanics. Novi for WhatsApp does the same, but for a much, much larger audience, and does so instantly. While it isn't shackled by the baggage of the financial industry born in an era far removed from the current one, the pace of improvements and deployments can be much faster in face of changing regulations, jurisdictions, and technology itself.

Re: WhatsApp Launches Instant Cryptocurrency Payments in the US

#32

Post by [deleted] »

thehappypm wrote: post #22
xyzzy123 wrote: post #14

If you think a bit bigger and imagine a worldwide audience (basically the defining feature of whatsapp), the initial killer apps here are remittances and the ability to build out marketplaces and stores. Assume the goal is global wechat-like commerce. IMHO this is huge. The regulatory interactions will be formidable because every country will want to get its fingers into this, money and who gets it is ultimately poli…

What makes it so huge in your opinion? PayPal and Venmo and the like already make this very easy, internationally there are some challenges, but it’s not technical limitations so much as legal/compliance which doesn’t go away with blockchain.

[deleted]

Re: WhatsApp Launches Instant Cryptocurrency Payments in the US

#33

Post by toast0 »

panarky wrote: post #25
johanneskanybal wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pick your middleman. Using a crypto layer internally means you can circumvent traditional payment rails which means if you're in American growth-tech where revenue isn't a thing you can just remove all fee's for a while. Paypal could do the same for sure but chose not to. Disagree with the notion they won't be shutting people out of the network when needed, that's not grounded in reality.

Why did you put an apostrophe in "fee's" but not in "rails"? This isn't a grammar-nazi criticism because I frequently make similar mistakes with pluralization. It strikes me that there must be some cognitive explanation for why some plurals seem to need an apostrophe when other plurals don't.

Style rules used to suggest an apostrophe for initialized items such as C.D.'s for sale. Of course, modern style rules suggest CDs for sale (but don't tell the New York Times).

Re: WhatsApp Launches Instant Cryptocurrency Payments in the US

#34

Post by thebean11 »

pavlov wrote: post #21

This is fundamentally a centralized system like PayPal. Most transactions never touch crypto. Meta/FB keeps some USDP at hand for those very few users who actually want to do crypto withdrawals. Facebook has been trying to get payments into WhatsApp for a long time. This is just the latest experiment to try to find something that would be acceptable to local regulators while simultaneously extracting some value from…

Do you have a source for them only keeping "some" at hand? You brought up PayPal, which holds 100% of users crypto through an intermediary (Paxos).

Re: WhatsApp Launches Instant Cryptocurrency Payments in the US

#35

Post by agentultra »

It's not like FB/Meta can't afford to participate in the US (or any other legal, regulated) payment networks and protect their end users and intermediaries. They could easily cover the cost of fees if this was a product they actually believed in and could make revenue from.

Re: WhatsApp Launches Instant Cryptocurrency Payments in the US

#36

Post by jd115 »

panarky wrote: post #28
jd115 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The timing of this is not accidental and Facebook is not acting on its own accord here. This is a move by the Russian mafia/state to make it easier to evade the imminent cut-off from SWIFT and global financial networks.

Just because Russia is a mafia state doesn't mean they're behind Facebook's payments initiatives. To make this sound a bit less like mad conspiratorial ravings, could you flesh out how Whatsapp would allow Russian banks, government agencies, companies and oligarchs to move large quantities of money if they're disconnected from SWIFT? For example, how would Russia get around the fact that Whatsapp is only offering thi…

Oh, but this isn't for the Russian people! It's for the so called "oligarchs" and their families who - surprise - don't actually live in Russia! They like America and western Europe much better.

And if you don't realise that Russian government / KGB is VERY MUCH behind Facebook and its initiatives, I'm afraid you have quite a bit of catching up to do.

Re: WhatsApp Launches Instant Cryptocurrency Payments in the US

#37

Post by thehappypm »

The_Colonel wrote: post #27
thehappypm wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What makes it so huge in your opinion? PayPal and Venmo and the like already make this very easy, internationally there are some challenges, but it’s not technical limitations so much as legal/compliance which doesn’t go away with blockchain.

> What makes it so huge in your opinion? Whatsapp has 2 billion users, PayPal and Venmo probably only small fraction of that. On Whatsapp you already have your friends in the list, on PayPal I personally have nobody. It's an additional hurdle, I've never actually sent money to friend/family through PayPal.

Sure, but is this any more interesting than a partnership where WhatsApp lets people PayPal money to other WhatsApp users?

Re: WhatsApp Launches Instant Cryptocurrency Payments in the US

#38

Post by thehappypm »

ignoramous wrote: post #31
thehappypm wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What makes it so huge in your opinion? PayPal and Venmo and the like already make this very easy, internationally there are some challenges, but it’s not technical limitations so much as legal/compliance which doesn’t go away with blockchain.

> PayPal and Venmo and the like already make this very easy They make it easy because they abstract away the underlying mechanics. Novi for WhatsApp does the same, but for a much, much larger audience, and does so instantly . While it isn't shackled by the baggage of the financial industry born in an era far removed from the current one, the pace of improvements and deployments can be much faster in face of changing…

Instantly? I’ve come to expect that from Venmo, Zelle, PayPal, etc.

Re: WhatsApp Launches Instant Cryptocurrency Payments in the US

#39

Post by asdfsd234234444 »

thehappypm wrote: post #22
xyzzy123 wrote: post #14

If you think a bit bigger and imagine a worldwide audience (basically the defining feature of whatsapp), the initial killer apps here are remittances and the ability to build out marketplaces and stores. Assume the goal is global wechat-like commerce. IMHO this is huge. The regulatory interactions will be formidable because every country will want to get its fingers into this, money and who gets it is ultimately poli…

What makes it so huge in your opinion? PayPal and Venmo and the like already make this very easy, internationally there are some challenges, but it’s not technical limitations so much as legal/compliance which doesn’t go away with blockchain.

It's huge because PayPal and Venmo have abstracted away a ton of complexity under the hood. Don't believe me? Try building a PP/Venmo as a mental exercise.

With crypto under the hood, it becomes quite easy for competitors to build a remittance product.

Re: WhatsApp Launches Instant Cryptocurrency Payments in the US

#40

Post by codethief »

When Signal integrated MobileCoin last year (in the UK), there was a lot of uproar here on HN – some well-founded ("Why equip a slick and lightweight standalone app for privacy-preserving messaging with payments, a feature that adds bloat and will likely attract government regulation and oversight?"), some less so ("The Signal developers are just scamming everyone"). Given WhatsApp's move toward a WeChat-like app now, I think some of the criticism against Signal/MobileCoin needs to be reconsidered: Moxie et al. might have seen that coming (which I guess wasn't too difficult in light of WhatsApp's involvement in payments in India) and they are possibly just trying to stay competitive in the long term.

Addendum: Not that I'm a huge fan of the idea of crypto payments in Signal – I am not. But if the market (and especially the network effect of messaging apps) dictates it, what can they do? Moreover, I'm sure the Signal people looked into whether it'd be better/possible to move the payments feature into a second, optional app but there might have been architectural or security reasons not to do so(?)

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