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Comment by oriesdan | Hacker News Reader

And for people often saying it's a solution in search of a problem : that's why we need cryptocurrencies. At least, the ones that could be used as actual currencies.

It would be so much better if I could click a payment link that opens an external wallet software like "mailto:" links, verify the amount it proposes to transfer, and click "send" to send the money at the prefilled address instead of allowing someone to take it.

I really hope that one day, we'll tell our grandkids about that time where we were giving secret codes on the internet and anyone having them could take money on our account as they wish, and those kids will think we're delirious.

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How is any of that not possible with regular money and a regular bank?

It's already how MobilePay works in Denmark. You give the website your phone number, and a prompt pops up on your phone screen to approve the transfer, with an amount, in a native (trusted) app.

Crypto doesn't add anything here.

Good for Denmark, it doesn't exist here. Plus, there is no way I will install a proprietary banking app. For this to be acceptable, it needs to be a standard and have multiple implementations. At which point, using cryptocurrencies is the easiest way.

> Plus, there is no way I will install a proprietary banking app.

I'm glad that you found a problem for your solution.

I'm glad you enjoy our dystopian world.

But your point about not trusting an app is the same. At some point you’d need to trust some app.

If your problem is the bank’s app something like PSD2 will solve this by allowing you to connect to the bank directly and having your own app, right?

As another example, Taler supports this exact requirement, without bringing crypto into the mix.

So does UPI in India. Banking transactions ask for my credentials on the bank website (after a redirect).

None of this needs cryptocoins.

Sending money worldwide is still often problematic (YMMV).

That's silly. This attack would be much easier to pull off with cryptocurrency.

Yep, the scripts that do so just replace the wallet you're going to send your bitcoin to with the attacker's wallet.

If you get your card skimmed you can call your bank and have your money bank.

If they steal your crypto it's buh-bye.

Ppl enjoy convenience. If we are to move to your solution in a matter of months or years we’d have Chrome integrate their wallet system as a new feature so you don’t need to open a new app. I think you can see how this is a very probable scenario

There are literally digital skimmers that do very similar attacks against checkout systems that utilize crypto currency.

The Lazarus group from North Korea actually did some of the earliest ones I saw, because they love themselves some bitcoin.

People love convenience too much. Look at what Gmail has done to mailto.

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