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Comment by gataca | Hacker News Reader

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

I am an expat who doesn't have a local bank account in my country (Sweden). Thus I can't use Cash, Venmo, Apple Pay, etc. or their Swedish equivalent (Swish) to send money to local friends after we go out to eat, etc. Paypal is my only real alternative right now, and I will never use Paypal. This might allow me to easily send cash to my local friends.

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?

From what I understand, the unbanked are really more of a thing in the developing world. The same crowd that'd be receiving micro loans were they looking to start small business in say rural Myanmar

Actually, I believe about 7-8% of the US is also unbanked. But that might be a specific to US (compared to other Western nations).

I lost a bank account last year and was unbanked for a little while. I really hate my customer service interactions with banks and would be quite happy if I could unbank myself.

Life pro tip:

If your Charles Schwab broker emails and says that they're wondering why your retirement savings are nothing but medical marijuana penny stocks and if you'd like to come in to talk about healthy portfolio management strategies, you should go into the local office and not ignore that email.

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.

The bulk of those in Uganda are unbanked. Everyone here uses WhatsApp. Something like this would be a great way for me to pay contractors and domestic staff who right now only take cash.

If they're unbanked how are they getting the money on there in the first place?

The world wide web my dude

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).

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.

They'll still have to pay the gatekeepers if they want to convert their cryptocurrency into something liquid.

Of course. As long as gatekeeper fees are less than the 3% charged for mobile money it’s a win

Street-level drug dealers would love secure and anonymous mobile payment platform for b2c and b2b settlements.

In the USA at least, it still exists, and it's called cash.

If cash were invented today, it would be illegal. For most small payments if not large transfers, in the USA consumers actually have the right to transact anonymously. Tracking micropayments publicly forever on a blockchain seems like a step backwards. Being able to track large transfers on a blockchain is one of the benefits of living in the world where the Byzantine General's Problem has been solved.

I guess you can now pay for illicit drugs using Signal without being tracked...

How are you not being tracked when your transaction will be on the blockchain? I can't believe we're still at this argument.

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