[erc20]

Good questions.

A crypto payment processor allows setting up a payment gateway like Paypal, but accepting USDC instead. When accepting payment, the amount is deposited into the business owner's own wallet. The business owner can choose to accept payment in USDC. USDC is a ERC20 token, each backed by 1 USD or Treasury equivalent, operated by Circle, registered with FinCEN and dozens of other regulators, with monthly reports published by Grant Thornton. USDC token is available for use on the Polygon network, where a transfer costs between a tenth to one cent.

The main advantage over Paypal using the above process involving USDC on Polygon is, she can run her business via a wallet she controls without worrying about a clumsy corporate locking up her funds, and lower transaction fees.

The main disadvantage is - her customers must use USDC on the Polygon network - and adoption of crypto for ecommerce payments, let alone on a specific network like Polygon, is still early.

[D13Fd]

It sounds like to are still forced to trust a third party exchange, and you now cannot accept payment from customers unless they pay in a cryptocurrency (USDC). Is that right? How is this better than a third party intermediary who takes dollars and sends you dollars?

[erc20]

In the current market a third party intermediary who takes dollars and sends dollars, e.g. credit cards, the costs of accepting a payment range from 10 cents to 3% of the transaction value. This can be higher than the use of USDC on the polygon network. There may be a delay measured in days or hours between accepting a payment, and the payment reaching your bank account. This compares to a USDC transfer taking seconds. The bank holding the funds may arbitrarily block your merchant account for reasons such as: operating in an industry the bank dislikes, transacting with international customers during a conflict.

By holding the funds in the business' own wallet, if the payment provider suspends services, the funds are not seized by default - and not having liquidity immediately seized during the crucial moments where the business is suspended have important advantages for many businesses.

[D13Fd]

That sounds like it can be cheaper and faster in terms of actual money in your hands - but that benefit has nothing to do with cryptocurrency itself, any remake of the financial system could have those properties.

The payment provider and the bank are separate. It seems to me that you could substitute the word “bank account” for “wallet” in your second paragraph and it would still be true. Bank accounts have very well proven reliability at this point, plus the fact that currency in a bank account does not fluctuate in value like a stock. So again, it’s hard to see how that virtue is unique to cryptocurrency.

[erc20]

> any remake of the financial system could have those properties.

Yes, and cryptocurrency is one take on it, while adoption is still early, it has traction, more so than previous attempts.

Central banks are also working in this area with CBDC's, they can see the benefits of bypassing corporate financial intermediaries too.

We can use bank accounts to gain similar benefits, if it's remade or improved, though the retail banking industry is very resource intensive compared to running the Polygon network.

What other remake are you aware of, people can work with today?

[D13Fd]

My point is just that the “crypto” part of cryptocurrency seems disconnected from the advantages you names.

[erc20]

There are probably other ways to achieve the same, but the Polygon network is a very efficient means to do so. It's an implementation detail that gives a small edge to remaking and improving the financial system.

However, it could be, at the end of it, by spurring competition, we have Central Bank CBDC's bypassing the retail bank to build a relationship with all currency users instead of cryptocurrency specifically replacing the financial system. That's another way to go about it.

Cryptocurrency have demonstrated the fundamentals of technology are mature enough, the retail bank, financial institutions, and the billions of dollars they earn being an inefficient middle man recording shared facts, it's ripe for disruption from two ends - Towards complete centralisation at the central bank (blockchain or not), or towards decentralisation via cryptocurrency.