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Comment by tacocataco | Hacker News Reader

I really really don't care what cash transfer app we go with, I just want to only have one app and for it to NEVER change.

Ideally, there would be regulated advisarial integration between the apps. That way if you had venmo and they had cashapp, it would still work!

Let these companies compete on UX and financial instruments, not creating a walled garden of users and hoping they get the most inertia.

We made it work with phone networks, I think we could handle this.

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That's exactly how UPI works. The protocol and payment network is operated by a section 8 non-profit pseudo-government entity. All banks are mandated to connect to it. As a customer you can have your account with any bank and be on UPI. Then, a bunch of non-bank third-parties are licensed to build UX apps. Google Pay, PhonePe are examples of this. They tie up with a bank partner to get access to the APIs. Then they can acquire customers onto their app and facilitate transactions. The customers with any bank using any UX app can send or receive money to anyone on any bank or app. No walled gardens permitted and actively discouraged.

For UPI, which is created and run by NPCI (an organization comprising a consortium of private and public banks), there is an “official” app called BHIM (Bharat Interface for Money). Anyone who has it doesn’t have to worry if the other person is using Google Pay or WhatsApp Pay or another app. Banks also have their own UPI apps or include the UPI feature in their banking app. All these apps work on the same platform, which is UPI, which in turn is supported by all banks.

Well that’s the point, UPI is literally interoperable and you can use any app you want and it just works. It’s not Indian’s fault that there is no such standard worldwide.

there is already a standard. it's SEPA/SWIFT and works on IBANs independent of any banks.

but it's use case is tiny in most of the world. most payments aren't made to people you want to give money to. most payments actually go to sellers. as such what people use in developed countries is their credit card.

Swift is slow and expensive as hell, the fees can run into 10s of dollars per transaction. SEPA is limited to the EU, not even the official candidate countries have it.

I've not used any third party UPIs. I've been using BHIM UPI since 2020 _almost_ without issues.

we have instant bank transfers in so many countries nowadays. you press "send" and it's truly instant.

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