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Comment by Brajeshwar | Hacker News Reader

We Indians take it for granted, but UPI[1] is a brilliant system. We make payments for something as small as ₹1 if needed. Transaction of ₹10[2] for a cup of tea is a very regular and ordinary happening.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unified_Payments_Interface

2. ₹10 is roughly $0.12 (as of today).

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UPI has apparently inspired a similar system in the US called FedNow [0] which will launch in 2023.

[0] https://www.frbservices.org/financial-services/fednow/about....

It is great but require private defaults.

Cred recently added support for adding alias instead of real name. Many UPI apps also associate your phone number automatically to your UPI ID so you are handing out your phone number whenever you pay.

I've actually thought of this and have recently started going back to cash, and actual cards.

Brazil introduced a very similar system with Pix [1] in 2020.

Sweden has Swish [2] since 2012 which is more limited in scope than UPI and very similar to Pix.

It makes life very easy, I do have some reservations on privacy with this kind of centralisation of financial transaction though.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pix_(payment_system)

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swish_(payment)

Tricky to buy a cup of tea online though. Is this like WeChat, one of the ubiquitous person-to-person payment systems used in China?

Not Indian, but unlike WeChat (and AliPay), UPI is a government-sponsored interconnect so every bank can implement it. I'm not sure of the privacy implications though.

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