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Comment by mdorazio | Hacker News Reader

Venmo also allows using QR codes quite easily (tap "Scan" on the home screen and then scan a code or tap "Venmo me" to show your code), but for some reason many users don't seem to know that and end up trying to look people up by their username instead. I think it's because QR codes really never caught on in the US.

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QR codes are clumsy and inconvenient, moving to NFC was the right move for the states and most of the developed world. However, Starbucks uses QR codes for its app if you pay in store (but you can mobile order and not pay in store at all, so I rarely bother).

China built its cashless system using QR codes, since it doesn't require any additional hardware beyond a smartphone and the clumsiness is just another thing you get used to over there.

I could be misremembering since I lived in China a long time ago, but I feel like QR codes were wildly popular in Asia long before digital payments became really popular. So it probably made sense on several fronts to adopt them for payments as well (everyone already used them anyway, they're effectively free, etc.) rather than build a new system.

I didn't think they were especially popular until they were used for mobile payments. I'm not really sure about other countries in east Asia, they tend to grow completely different ecosystems from China.

> QR codes are clumsy and inconvenient

May be, but at least all smartphones have a camera. Same can't be said about NFC.

Yes, that’s why the Chinese chose the technology. Whereas America was already used to POS’s everywhere, and square makes relatively affordable receiver NFC POS hardware for phones.

They absolutely did in my US city during the pandemic—every restaurant at least temporarily only provided menus via QR codes at the front.

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