Matti SchneiderJun 26, 2025
“I want to say out loud that it is time to recognise that #SocialMedia has become infrastructure.” — Liv from @dpgalliance
And if that is the case, then we should also have public infrastructure.
#IGF25
Show threadMatti Schneider
“In 🇧🇷, the Visa-Mastercard duopoly that charged 3–5% for each transaction was broken and open to competition not thanks to more regulation, but by creating an alternative as Digital Public Infrastructure by the central bank: #Pix. The idea was taken from 🇮🇳 UPI, but with one major improvement: UPI is made by a foundation, on the idea that public sector can’t deliver well. The drawback is there is no transparency and limited accountability. Pix is subject to FoI requests.” — Luca Belli
#IGF25 #DPI
Jun 27, 2025 at 9:21amWeb
Show threadMatti SchneiderJun 27, 2025
“Most people don’t realise that Visa and Mastercard are not payment companies anymore, they are information processing companies. They make more revenue from data collection on their infrastructure than from the transaction fees, and declare that derived revenue in tax havens.” — Luca Belli
#DPI is tax-funded, but does it really cost more? Can we truly measure the opportunity value to society?
#IGF25
Show threadMatti SchneiderJun 27, 2025
“In 🇿🇦, one third of GDP is spent on online gambling. The transaction costs for those are a sort of hidden digital tax taken by foreign actors. The information is kept private. With #DPI, we can make inclusion metrics much more visible. We can get a reliable credit score. We can make register holders accountable.” — Keith Breckenridge
#IGF25
Show threadMatti SchneiderJun 27, 2025
“Even if the implementation of #DPI in 🇮🇳 was done by foundations, with great involvement from the software community, only the State could enable adoption: aadhar was mandated for all welfare, connected to UPI. But is DPI truly independent from Big Tech? The majority of UPI volume is handled through Google Pay, by Phone Pay, to the point that many users don’t see UPI anymore but think of it as ‘GPay’. That’s a bit of a cautionary tale.” — Sabhanaz Radhid Diya
#IGF25
Show threadMatti SchneiderJun 27, 2025
“🇮🇳 UPI handled 3.77 billion transactions for US$90 billions in just one month in 2025. All government procurement is distributed through UPI. This has basically democratised procurement. You can have someone sitting in a village become a provider for government. It enables SMEs to participate in the e-commerce activity.”
#IGF25
Show threadMatti SchneiderJun 27, 2025
“In participating health providers (clinics, pharmacy…) across 🇮🇳, citizens eligible to healthcare support can just come with their aadhar card and the payment is handled by government directly to the provider. Could this has been done without #DPI? Absolutely not.”
Mmh… most 🇪🇺 countries show that you can have direct health insurance payment (and affordable healthcare ✌️) with non-sovereign payment infrastructure.
#IGF25
Show threadMatti SchneiderJun 27, 2025
Having spent a few months in both 🇧🇷 🇮🇳, I have been impressed by both Pix & UPI and the adoption in remote areas.
I am frustrated that 🇪🇺 has all the legal and technical infrastructure with #SEPA flash payments, we even have a QRcode standard, and yet we keep on waiting for private sector competition instead of making the ECB an operator and launching an EU-wide campaign for shops to use DPI. Reclaim 3% off transaction costs, enable small digital payments, remove 🇺🇸 critical vulnerabilities!
#IGF25
Show threadveroandiJun 27, 2025

@MattiSG

I can give one example:

When I transfer money from Brazil to France via Wise, it arrives in one or two minutes.

However, when I transfer money from one French bank to another, it still takes two to three days. As of June 2025.

Europe is way behind Brazil and India in technology in many fields.

Show threadMatti SchneiderJun 27, 2025
@veroandi I am not sure this is a valid argument :) I don’t know which banks in France still don’t support flash payments, but we can also find providers in Brazil that don’t do Pix and in India that don’t do UPI. I use on a daily basis 5 different banks across the EU and they have all had instant payments for nearly 2 years :)
Show threadveroandiJun 27, 2025

@MattiSG

I frequently use French Boursorama and BNP, and even when I select an instant transfer, it takes 2-3 days for the money to reach the other bank.

It's always difficult to talk about "Europe" when the countries and banks involved have different systems that struggle to synchronize. But my experience with these French banks is not the best. :(

I don't say Brazilians banks are better - they are worst in ethical and business terms - but gladly the BR gov obliged them to deploy PIX. :s