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Comment by accurrent | Hacker News Reader

While I agree cryptocurrencies don't stand a chance, my experience with qr systems has been a mixed bag. The country I live in has a fairly good qr code payment system. But there was one day when the largest bank went down and that was chaos (cash very much has a role to play). We also supposedly have linkage with India's UPI. Unfortunately, it was impossible for me to actually use that linkage thanks to the way upi works (I think only some subset of banks are supported).

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In the case of Brazil, besides QR codes, you can also make payments using the user unique key, which can be its phone number, social security number, email or a random generated key.

> you can also make payments using the user unique key, which can be its phone number, social security number, email or a random generated key.

And you can also use the bank account number, effectively replacing older bank transfer mechanisms like DOC and TED.

QR codes are problematic. First of all, you can’t really verify it with your naked eye. It can take you to a fake site that looks just like the original. Using phone numbers is vastly superior.

> It can take you to a fake site that looks just like the original.

At least with PIX, you scan the QR code directly on your online banking app, so there's no risk of going to a "fake site" (and the app also displays the information extracted fron the QR code, it's not a blind payment).

There's also "Pix Copia e Cola" (Pix Copy and Paste)

QR codes carry data. It might be a URL or it might not.

The PIX QR codes are URLs without the preceding https://

Scanning a PIX QR code with your camera will just result in text, not a payable URL. You have to scan it in your online banking app for it to be processed as something.

Your banking app will load the details about the payment and you'll see the recipient details before performing the payment.

Even with regular barcode payments, these barcodes are registered with the bank before it's a valid barcode. A lookup is done, if it exists the recipient details are displayed, often the amount, and verifications that it has not expired. (Do not receive after date X)

Brazil has a pretty decent banking system, though the worst online-banking experience I've ever had. (Slowly improving)

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