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MobileCoin has raised $30M for private mobile payments

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Re: MobileCoin has raised $30M for private mobile payments

#41

Post by neuro_imager »

gataca wrote: post #4

Can someone explain why the average user would prefer this over using venmo?

Privacy - All transactions on venmo are easily accessed by venmo and other third parties.

International transactions - Venmo is very limited in this regard.

The unbanked - As stated already, there are about two billion unbanked people worldwide.

Avoiding banking cartels. - We've fed these parasites enough, don't you think?

Ease of use - A payment over a social network would be relatively seamless, particularly if you believe that apps allowing for rapid transfer between cryptocurrencies will be feasible (they are to some degree already).

Re: MobileCoin has raised $30M for private mobile payments

#42

Post by moe »

mrb wrote: post #39
deft wrote: post #7

Mobilecoin is a token powered by a stellar smart contract. I don't care if Moxie or god himself is the lead of the project, because it's incredibly limited in scope (actually stellar advertises that as a feature of their smart contract platform) I doubt it will succeed. And no, a fancy mobile UI is not worth $30mil. Before someone replies with a quote from the whitepaper about what it /will/ do, don't bother. Until i…

« don't care if Moxie or god himself is the lead of the project » By this attitude, you would have failed to correctly value the potential of early Amazon (because "an online bookstore is not worth $X.") One of the core principles of YC is that the value of an early-stage company mostly depends on the founders, not the initial idea (as it can change.)

> potential of early Amazon

Except this is not "early Amazon".

This is someone promising to build a mini-Amazon on AWS.

Re: MobileCoin has raised $30M for private mobile payments

#44

Post by freddie_mercury »

rms wrote: post #27
urda wrote: post #24

You're not going to beat out Venmo, Apple Pay, and other established platforms. Can this blockchain currency nonsense end already? People need to stop trying to force a given tech to do something specific all the time. It's literally the definition of "trying too hard".

Consumer micropayments is one of the most basic possible applications of this technology and that it hasn't been implemented yet is sad. I'm not a fan of the customer experience of Venmo and Paypal and Apple Pay that require me to have a bank account or a credit card. They work in the first world for transfers over a certain minimum but there is really clearly room to innovate still. Do you see a future where blockch…

There are plenty of alternatives in developing countries. (I live in one such country and no one here uses any of the things you listed.) None of them are based on the block chain. They don't require bank accounts or credit cards. They don't work just for "certain amounts".

If those things don't exist in America it is because the market for them in America doesn't exist.

Re: MobileCoin has raised $30M for private mobile payments

#46

Post by bfuller »

gataca wrote: post #8
rms wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pessimistically, they won't. Optimistically, they solve consumer micropayments by allowing the unbanked to send and store money via WhatsApp.

Ok, that makes a lot of sense for the unbanked. I personally don’t know many people who are unbanked but maybe that number will grow in the future? I’m just trying to think about explaining this to some friends and why they should do this. Totally anonymous/private transactions between parties not having to use a bank?

Most people who use whatsapp live in the third world. Almost everyone uses it in Guatemala, and most people also don't have a bank there.

Re: MobileCoin has raised $30M for private mobile payments

#47

Post by Dystoxin »

moe wrote: post #43
0xFFC wrote: post #18

The idea seems exactly like Electroneum.

Or Aeon. Or Phoneum. Or Telcoin. Or Status.im. Or a dozen other coins with near identical goals.

Aeon – Is pretty much like any cryptocurrency in general. They are trying to act like Monero but fast payments and multiple transactions like Litecoin. So the only I thing I see similar about Aeon and Telcoin is that they are on a mobile friendly. (Pretty much has to be for major adoption)

Status – Is an Ethereum-sending app, where you can send Ethereum and messages back and forth. Therefore, I would compare this more to PayPal, than Telcoin. Team is somewhat lackluster. In addition, this is about sending crypto between people (mainly Ethereum) and relates to Telcoin because it is on a mobile phone.

Phoneum - is a decentralized cryptocurrency that operates on mobile devices via app only, empowered by blockchain technology. The app also comes with a built in miner. I honestly could not find too much and it is not listed on CoinMarketCap. If I had to compare this to another crypto, it would be Electroneum, not Telcoin. They are literally doing the same thing and have a patent pending on the mobile miner. Telcoin – is a cryptocurrency designed to facilitate digital asset exchange with telecom channels provided by operators worldwide. They are trying to simplify it to where anyone, with any type of phone can send money, through a simple text.

These are all short examples and don’t give them full justice but the only thing they all have in common is that they are all cryptocurrencies and that they can be used with a phone. Telcoin is the only one that has shown great progress by partnering with big names like Wipro and GSMA. This shows that they are in the same realm with Telecom providers and are willing to comply with all the standards and regulations. I personally believe that this is a sleeper project and whenever it takes off, it is going to fly. Look at the team/advisors and tell me they are not bound for some success within the telecom industry.

Re: MobileCoin has raised $30M for private mobile payments

#48

Post by ohtwenty »

urda wrote: post #24

You're not going to beat out Venmo, Apple Pay, and other established platforms. Can this blockchain currency nonsense end already? People need to stop trying to force a given tech to do something specific all the time. It's literally the definition of "trying too hard".

> You're not going to beat out Venmo, Apple Pay, and other established platforms.

Those are established platforms where you are. Anecdotally, no-one here (NL) uses Venmo or apple pay, recently there's been an increase in popularity of 'tikkie' (https://tikkie.me/) which allows people to send payment requests through whatsapp (used by 90%< of people here). so if something like this is ingrained in whatsapp directly apps like that would lose popularity, i think

Re: MobileCoin has raised $30M for private mobile payments

#49

Post by deft »

rms wrote: post #25
deft wrote: post #7

Mobilecoin is a token powered by a stellar smart contract. I don't care if Moxie or god himself is the lead of the project, because it's incredibly limited in scope (actually stellar advertises that as a feature of their smart contract platform) I doubt it will succeed. And no, a fancy mobile UI is not worth $30mil. Before someone replies with a quote from the whitepaper about what it /will/ do, don't bother. Until i…

Your github led me to https://turtlecoin.lol/ which makes your point and undermines it at the same time. Turtlecoin launched with an incremental and a catchy name and no ICO and on the surface sounds like it achieves a lot of what Mobilecoin attempts to. Ultimately though, Turtlecoin is a parameter tweak and relaunch of existing coins that doesn't solve the core problem of consumer payments. Mobilecoin is at least at…

Thanks for the detailed reply. To me TurtleCoin is just a fun project that's trying a different approach: make something first. It has a long way to go and as it exists now is how you describe. In the long run the project members are hoping to take it well past that, which I'm sure you saw on the site.

When I first heard about mobilecoin I thought it was different too. The problem I have is why are they raising money right now? Show me a working MVP (not a sketch UI) first. It's crazy that people are raising this amount of money with absolutely nothing to demo. I have more faith in mobilecoin launching something worthwhile compared to other coins but I'm still very skeptical... name recognition and private raises don't change much.

As for now I've just been messing around with TurtleCoin. The project (along with the low price) has managed to create a community that's interested in building things with it. I like being able to hack on something, and no other crypto project has offered that environment.

Re: MobileCoin has raised $30M for private mobile payments

#50

Post by anubisresources »

gataca wrote: post #4

Can someone explain why the average user would prefer this over using venmo?

I live in Uganda and something like this will be a great mobile money alternative. MTN and their ilk take a huge chunk of change for mobile money, and if this is cheap it’ll catch on very quickly here.

It should also make paying domestic staff and various contractors easier, and that’ll be nice.

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