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by burnt-resistor 323 days ago
Consortia of credit unions and national postal services all need to offer universal p2p and electronic payment methods that do not depend on the patronage of fickle, moralizing corporate crooks. Banking and ability to make purchases and receive funds are human rights, not privileges to be dictated by technofeudal overlords.
3 comments

Here’s hoping GNU Taler will actually take off! Not really P2P, but should cut down on technofeudal overlords.

https://www.taler.net/

That's exactly what ethereum is - you're able to move funds without permission, trustlessly, instantly.
A payment system people actually want to use is not just the system to move funds. It also needs ways to move funds back and meet the onerous compliance burdens anything financial eventually has to deal with and a thousand other little things at the boundary between the perfect little world of the system and the messy, complicated world of a modern economy.
No, it's not a complete solution and has too much shady speculation and sketchy exchanges. Furthermore, it's not a stablecoin.
Most people are not suited for using crypto in a serious capacity. Crypto puts the entire onus of keeping the funds secure on the holder, and one misstep on their part can see their entire wallet siphoned away in a fraction of a second with no recourse, and likely no punishment on the thief.

Banks have fraud experts on staff, they have people that can monitor activity and stop such transactions. Both sides have accountability so that the thief can be tracked down. Your worst outcome is getting your card skimmed and not noticing it in time to report the fraud unless you deliberately send your bank info to someone else. But even then, your bank can probably still help you.

The ACH system is already a universal electronic payment system. Its run by the federal government and is close to free (the fed charges a fraction of a penny per transaction, most consumer bank accounts offer free ACH).
I'm surprised a system with multiple days of settlement time where you have to enter 23 digits without a typo and reversal requires a bunch of paperwork never caught on with consumers.
Moving from the US to the Netherlands and paying other people thru instant transfers with qr codes was life changing.