Expanding global payouts with crypto(stripe.com) |
Expanding global payouts with crypto(stripe.com) |
- This is a win for the polygon network and USDC adoption
- Twitter payouts is a small (in value) but high profile place to start
- I can see this being great for use cases where your bank might restrict withdrawals based on the activities that resulted in the payout
- Stripe should build a crypto off-ramp. It would be a short-term distraction for them but long-term could position them to be _the_ business bank
I'm lost on this. I never seen ads on Twitter and only read it to see if someone really posted whatever news side is posting a tweet.i have never seen anything being driven by twitter
Even Elon/Tesla backed away from crypto less than three months after announcement. They've been (allegedly) looking at it again for almost a year now but given no additional announcement of progress that announcement was quite possibly just another PR move.
They'd only deprecate it if the end users eventually dwindle to 0 and it becomes more expensive to maintain in engineering hours than fees. Which could happen, but it'll take longer than merchants who dip their toes into cryptocurrencies as a currency and find piranhas.
I’d love to be able to use Stripe for web credit card payments if I could. Hopefully this is a step towards that.
But yet again, we'll see the same old screaming and shouting 'scam' comments everywhere even when Stripe isn't the one scamming and only was waiting for regulations before entering back in.
It's also interesting to see no praise or any critical critique yet on this announcement here with what Stripe is offering and where the exact so-called scam is.
Perhaps the typical screaming and shouting 'scam' comments will only happen in the next crypto / DeFi hack / scam post on HN, but not when Stripe releases something in its product offering about crypto.
Maybe when they say 'crypto has no use case' they cannot deny Stripe's involvement and them using it which also explains that it ruins the skeptics 'crypto scam' narrative and why they hesitate to immediately scream and comment here.
Either way, we'll see but in the meantime USDC looks like a sensible choice for crypto payouts.
“Stripe piloting payouts to Twitter creators in Circle Bucks”
Do with that what you will.
It's clear there's some form of benefit for users beyond major markets (though those users still need to go through Stripe's KYC process), but for those in major markets, what benefits are there to receive earnings in crypto?
And Polygon is probably a second layer solution based on Ethereum, so indirectly, this will create demand for ETH?
I used to think Stripe's team cared about technical excellence and generally had good ideas.
With their first announcement into this space and now this I'm less inclined to think so and will avoid their business as much as I can.
Disclaimer: I don't hold any cryptocurrency unless I need to buy something with it :)
Well, sure, that's because it's not doing anything. It can't be used for any of the purposes that money serves -- unless you live next to a matcha cafe in Berkeley or whatever -- and so it inevitably begets a bank/payment-network transaction in order to actually be spent or saved. Or, as you put it:
> I don't hold any cryptocurrency unless I need to buy something with it :)
[...]
To be clear: I'm not an anti-crypto person, and I think it's as stupid to rage against a technology as it is to rage for it. I believe in the promise of digital cash. But first the candidate technology needs to satisfy the needs it's trying to serve, and none of the current breed of digital currencies (or none of which I'm aware) seem capable of doing that.
Also hell of a thing to announce on Earth Day.
There's also no guarantee that the PoW chain won't simply continue in yet another fork because profits.
Stripe themselves (in the very blogpost the submission links to no less) mention that they are using Polygon (which is PoS):
> Payouts will take place over the Polygon network
"Instead of sending a letter via USPS, send an instant electronic message via Clownfartmail"
Still seems better to me.
EDIT: Just to answer your implied question. I'm saying that in practice paying out an end user in USDC is the equivalent of paying out a user in any USD-denominated currency (crypto or not). Changing the name of the tech removes the 'gee-whiz' aspect of it and makes you focus on the use cases, which is ultimately what matters and ultimately what crypto struggles to actually deliver on.
But on USDC, it isn't regulated or properly audited by anyone reputable, the fact that sits on Ethereum/Polygon (which also isn't regulated and is riddled with high fees) doesn't give me confidence that anyone will use this token.
Stripe isn't doing anyone any favours offering this service.
1) USDC still needs to be turned into fiat in order to buy anything with it, so any regulatory/tax advantage is out the window there.
2) The fact that USDC is 'on blockchain' offers no meaningful advantage to the end-user vs. twitter (or any other centralized authority) just deciding to pay people in 'points' that are pegged to 1 USD (that also need to be converted to fiat to buy things)
https://www.centre.io/usdc-transparency
And Polygon is an Ethereum sidechain, so it charges very low fees.
So given these objections are without merit, this feature is doing people living in countries which cannot otherwise receive Stripe payouts a favor.
And then what do they do with their USDC? Sell it for USD?
Also, what are the geos where all 3 are true:
1) Stripe can't payout in USD 2) Strip can payout in USDC 3) USDC to USD (or any fiat) conversion is freely allowed