Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Brazilian authorities suspend WhatsApp payments

bloomberg.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 118 posts

Re: Brazilian authorities suspend WhatsApp payments

#61

Post by mixmastamyk »

centimeter wrote: post #58
soneca wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a Brazilian living in the US I can tell you that the TED system is already a smooth, efficient, and cheap money transfer service compared to the solutions here in the US. So I have total confidence that they are capable of creating a better yet version of it.

What solutions have you tried in the US? Venmo and Cash App are both free and work up to like $2500, at which point you have to deal with government systems like ACH and it gets slow and expensive.

The US banking system is archaic compared to elegant systems like they have in Australia/New Zealand (and probably Europe). No malicious rent-seeking third parties needed in the transaction.

Re: Brazilian authorities suspend WhatsApp payments

#62

Post by [deleted] »

radmuzom wrote: post #21
centimeter wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> money transfers are going to be less complex, clunky and costly. You really think the Brazilian central bank is going to make a smooth, efficient, and cheap money transfer service? What reason do you have to expect that to work?

Pretty sure you are viewing it from an American perspective. India has had a government created smooth efficient money transfer service for >17 years now. There are multiple systems - all created by the government - and they work perfectly almost all of the time.

[deleted]

Re: Brazilian authorities suspend WhatsApp payments

#63

Post by nroets »

sktrdie wrote: post #24

Why do services like whatsapp need support for this? We have URLs people! Here I just send an URL to my friend via whatsapp. They click on the link. The site takes care of giving user whichever payment method they desire. User pays. That's it. From a user's perspective to pay I just have to click a link. And to get paid I just send a link. How easier can it get?

Fraudsters may trick people into sending the wrong URL.

If Whatsapp controls the payment platform, they can prevent a lot of fraud by mining their meta data. For example, if the payment is marked as a gift, but the parties do not have a vibrant conversation, there is likely fraud.

Re: Brazilian authorities suspend WhatsApp payments

#64

Post by mixmastamyk »

aprdm wrote: post #33
sktrdie wrote: post #24

Why do services like whatsapp need support for this? We have URLs people! Here I just send an URL to my friend via whatsapp. They click on the link. The site takes care of giving user whichever payment method they desire. User pays. That's it. From a user's perspective to pay I just have to click a link. And to get paid I just send a link. How easier can it get?

In Canada people can pay you by having your email or phone number in their bank app. Works really well!

That's problematic and not as good as direct bank to bank transfers.

Re: Brazilian authorities suspend WhatsApp payments

#65

Post by wslh »

plausible wrote: post #17

As a Brazilian, I'm pleased. Our central bank is going to release a platform called PIX. Financial institutions with more than 500.000 clients are required to implement it. Finally we are going to have a standard across banks, and money transfers are going to be less complex, clunky and costly. Of course, other apps have come before. We have apps like PicPay, PayPal and Nubank, just to name a few, that provide instan…

Even with all the economic struggles, Argentina was ahead many countries in the world regarding bank integrations. For years you can make immediate wire transfers between banks without any extra fee (beyond the taxes imposed by the state). If you want to create a digital wallet you don't need to be a bank, you can register as a payment processor and get virtual bank accounts (CVU) for every user which are compatible with the banking system. MercadoLibre/MercadoPago is one of the top players in this space and use a banking API (https://apibank.bind.com.ar/) behind the scene.

Re: Brazilian authorities suspend WhatsApp payments

#66

Post by EL_Loco »

f00zz wrote: post #46
danilocesar wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a Brazilian living in Canada, I can say the same.

As a Brazilian living in Brazil I'm surprised that anyone would expect a service provided by the Brazilian government to be efficient, or even work at all. This Pix thing seems to cover more than inter-bank transfers, people are expected to use it for QR code-based mobile payments for instance.

The HIV treatment program, provided by the brazilian government for free to everyone that needs it, has been very succesful and is a model to be followed. Not everything the government does is rotten, just a lot of it.

"Throughout the 1990s, when the annual cost of drugs for AIDS treatment often exceeded US$10,000 per patient, the World Bank and other development agencies discouraged developing countries from implementing treatment programs, favoring “cost-effective” prevention over costly treatment. Brazil challenged this conventional wisdom and, despite World Bank objections, has provided free universal access to highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) for all people living with HIV/AIDS since 1996." source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2782963/

Re: Brazilian authorities suspend WhatsApp payments

#67

Post by [deleted] »

haolez wrote: post #48
plausible wrote: post #17

As a Brazilian, I'm pleased. Our central bank is going to release a platform called PIX. Financial institutions with more than 500.000 clients are required to implement it. Finally we are going to have a standard across banks, and money transfers are going to be less complex, clunky and costly. Of course, other apps have come before. We have apps like PicPay, PayPal and Nubank, just to name a few, that provide instan…

As a Brazilian, I am not pleased. This will become just another tool for the government to create artificial difficulties and sell solutions to its closest "friends". Standards have been created without any government's help since forever.

[deleted]

Re: Brazilian authorities suspend WhatsApp payments

#68

Post by alphakilo »

mixmastamyk wrote: post #64
aprdm wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Canada people can pay you by having your email or phone number in their bank app. Works really well!

That's problematic and not as good as direct bank to bank transfers.

Electronic Money Transfer (EMT)/e-transfering is a bank-to-bank transfer in Canada.

Re: Brazilian authorities suspend WhatsApp payments

#69

Post by chrisco255 »

onli wrote: post #39
comechao wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, that's why I used the term "solution". I understand that PIX will be better than what we have today, but there's no reason to block other players and don't allow them to create their own payment solutions or products, based or not on PIX.

Sure there is. The government has the responsibility to create a free market. If a proprietary standard wins, you have a monopoly without competition. If the government standard wins that enables interoperability, no company can block other competitors. Europe did the same and it worked.

What stops the government from abusing this standard to impose arbitrary restrictions on spending?

Re: Brazilian authorities suspend WhatsApp payments

#70

Post by kawera »

throwaway3975 wrote: post #31
plausible wrote: post #17

As a Brazilian, I'm pleased. Our central bank is going to release a platform called PIX. Financial institutions with more than 500.000 clients are required to implement it. Finally we are going to have a standard across banks, and money transfers are going to be less complex, clunky and costly. Of course, other apps have come before. We have apps like PicPay, PayPal and Nubank, just to name a few, that provide instan…

The Bloomberg article that The Verge is referencing says that WhatsApp plans to implement PIX: https://www.bloomberg.com/amp/news/articles/2020-06-23/brazi...

Good. Then they can deploy their solution using a protocol available to all and not a closed platform made to lock the market. We've had enough of that, didn't we?
Post reply on HN