Mastodawn

The year is 2032.

You have to buy shitcoins for every online retailer now.

Anything not approved by Mastercard or Visa's Moral Committee is only possible to view on the dark web. (domain purchases are blacklisted if the domain hosts something against the moral committee's wishes)

Food products and electronics now have to be "Visa Certified"

A rep from Visa or Mastercard has to inspect every product and ensure that it doesn't contain any dissenting opinions or other thought crimes. Only then can it be Visa or Mastercard Certified and you may purchase it with your money.

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jomo Jun 25

@ocean in the EU there are at least alternatives, but they all suck. Many people use PayPal, which is probably even worse as a moral police.

In theory you have SEPA bank transfers, but nobody wants to log into their bank account, manually enter all the details and then wait until next week for the payment to be processed. So the shops use some shady providers that literally phish your bank credentials and guarantee the merchant that the payment was made.

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Evi SnowMew Jun 25

@jomo @ocean the SEPA thing is being worked on; SEPA instant transfers are a thing today and form the basis for WERO which is stated to be the European Payment System in direct competition to MC/VISA/PP. That said, it is moving VERY slow! Some countries are using a precursor (Payconic, Paylib and especially iDeal) and others have effectively adopted alternatives, muddying the waters sadly.

This entire situation is outright infuriating and I hope they start moving it out to the rest of the EU/Euro zone, because it’s obvious MC/VISA/PP have way too much power.

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jomo

@evi @ocean isn't WERO just yet another startup that nobody is mandated to support and only the banks investing in it are the ones supporting it? We've had a few iterations of that already.

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Evi SnowMew Jun 25

@jomo @ocean it’s the first time it’s actually getting development and getting used cross-border. EPI is currently owned by 16 large banks and after some mergers now has some of the more successful payment systems in their portfolio (the unifying of which is not only a started goal, but would make financial sense).

It’s not perfect and I certainly won’t promise anything, but I am giving it a higher chance of success.

WERO is just a name, the tech is 99% iDeal. iDeal started with only four banks and is now universal within its service area. So much so that larger international sellers support it even when it’s of no use in their home market. It’s cheap for banks to implement and cheap for stores to accept and paid money is effectively instantly available. The tech driving it is proven efficient and stable (it’s SEPA without buyers entering thing manually) and it’s in EPI’s interest to roll it out further and parts are actually appearing in Germany and Belgium (to be branded WERO).

Oh and no, I don’t work for them. I don’t even work in fintech. I would however really like this to work; we have had iDeal for many years and nit using the big card companies works very nicely and more people deserve it’s ease.