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by rdbell 1514 days ago
And gmail would have less users if it was called ClownFartMail. Not sure what you’re getting at.
1 comments

No that's not true at all.

"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.

I vehemently hate crypto and still I don't get your point here.

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.

My point, and I don't know how to make this any more clear is 'what is the actually fudging advantage of paying people out in USDC instead of USD, other than it sounding cool?' It's actually wild that people don't ask that question about this kind of thing.

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)

USDC is very credible. It receives regular attestations from Grant Thornton:

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.

>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?

Yes, in many places where local conversion of USDC to USD or some other fiat currency is possible, but international Stripe payouts through the banking system are not.
Wouldn't Stripe's efforts be better used in making payouts available in more countries then?

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