[unfocussed_mike]

I feel like I am engaging with a bad faith critique for the purposes of good faith discussion, which is a mistake, but OK, here goes:

Some businesses in the UK have banks that say they will close their accounts if they accept cryptocurrency payments. Mine does! I would without hesitation lose my business bank account if I did, because I am a trifling small customer.

Stripe was safe and reputable, but now it is a place where you can accept cryptocurrencies.

Edit: see note below.

I'm not currently clearing payments via Stripe for my own business, but the way I understand it, it's now likely to mean increased scrutiny from my bank about those payments when I do.

I'm not sure if it has rolled out in the UK yet. But if it has, will my bank be clearly informed when a payout was *not* the result of a cryptocurrency transaction? I've not read that far yet.

Either way it's reputational damage hassle people do not need.

And before you ask: I am of course comfortable with that bank policy. Because cryptocurrency is consistently crime-adjacent and fraud-adjacent. And it's not like banks are that well-equipped at dealing with old-fashioned frauds that have been around a century, let alone new frauds that have been around mere days.

--

Edit to add: apparently this document is not meant to communicate that cryptocurrency payments can be accepted. Which is not what the screenshots in the page do, IMO.

Though the fact that Stripe will allow NFT exchanges is more than enough to create reputational risk.

I still expect to have more difficulty when I add Stripe payments.

[danuker]

> Because cryptocurrency is consistently crime-adjacent and fraud-adjacent.

So are banks.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Money_laundering#Notable_cases

[unfocussed_mike]

That's as may be.

But I have to deal with my bank, don't I? And there is regulation to protect my business.

[rosndo]

Actually not really, I’ve switched banks used by my UK based business a couple of times. It has never been difficult.

I would certainly want to switch banks if I started hearing complaints about me using Stripe.

[unfocussed_mike]

Perhaps I am overcautious.

But today Stripe changed its Twitter icon to an NFT, which is like a Belisha Beacon for idiocy, isn't it?

Why any business that is serious would -- in March 2022 -- produce publicity or support materials that mention being able to sell NFTs, I do not know.

It's very stupid.

[rosndo]

While I largely share your feelings about NFTs, I think the general population outside of HN sphere does not.

I’d hedge my bets on this one, I’ve interacted extensively with the massive art market and NFTs really seem like a natural fit.

[unfocussed_mike]

> While I largely share your feelings about NFTs, I think the general population outside of HN sphere does not.

I don't know. I know a fair number of artists/musicians/photographers and I can tell you that among those artists, the impression of NFTs is almost universally negative.

I would bet that more people think NFT is close to a "giant, planet-killing scam", which is hyperbole but on the side of caution.

[dbmikus]

Just want to say that I had the POV of the grandparent comment, but your answer was a very useful and real description of a particular problem of accepting crypto-currency. So thanks for sharing!