• Alphane Moon@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    7
    arrow-down
    3
    ·
    edit-2
    2 days ago

    You don’t need crypto as an alternative to MasterCard/Visa. There are multiple national payment systems that de facto work on a public benefit basis or offer no fees or very low fees.

    One major example is India’s UPI:

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

    Even in a medium sized developing country like Ukraine, I can send anyone money (P2P, business payment, business transaction) with minimal or no fees on a near instantaneous basis off my phone.

    I am not on top of recent payment infrastructure developments, but from memory this is relatively common.

    No need for scam services like PayPal, Venmo.

    And this has been avaible for half a decade minimum (was living in another country before then).

    • DSN9@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 day ago

      Sure sure, is it a sound, decentralized bottom up monetary network built by the people for the people on cryptography rails on an uncensorable network?

    • katy ✨@piefed.blahaj.zone
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      2 days ago

      i’m not saying i’d use it or want it; i just meant it could have been had it not basically been relegated to the fringes by the cryptobros that made it unlikeable.

      • Alphane Moon@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        2 days ago

        That’s fair. I do agree it has some properties to potentially be used in payment infrastructure systems.

        I would argue something like India’s UPI (we don’t have a name for it in Ukraine) is better in every possible respect than a payment infrastructure based on blockchain tech.