| Indeed. My primary issue is requiring a Google or Apple blessed phone for the protocol that is supposed to replace the American alternative with the EU one. If they push strongly the American duopoly, I'd rather use the American monopoly that gives me the better ergonomics and less friction. Yes I do get a TOTP request every now and then, but I have options like authenticator apps, SMSes, passkeys with Paypal. With Wero that's more limited. I simply do not believe that EU banks will actually invest in a truly independent system with its own trust network. Majority of the banks complain and block you in Germany, when you have a unGoogled phone. It is simply not in the culture of Germany to make risky investments, especially banks. They always choose the options that milk normal consumers. Then EU comes and regulates them into submission. We only got guaranteed free instant SEPA transfers in 2025, while it has been possible for decades. So I am more optimistic for ECB's digital Euro as a consumer than Wero. > In term of implementation, WeRo looks more like a response to mobile payments like WhatApp, WeChat, Alipay, ... than a response a provider like PayPal. Wero is usually marketed as the alternative to PayPal: https://www.ndr.de/ratgeber/verbraucher/Paypal-Alternative-W... and I didn't know Whatsapp supported payments. I have never seen such an option. > You can use QRCode (Direct SEPA). If they fixed the mobile phone problem and provided a way that's functionally equivalent to Paypal usernames, I'm in for person-to-person transfers. > Supporting merchants flow to pay is different from prioritizing their needs so I'm unsure where you're going from there. It's also completely separated from Person-to-Person payments. PayPal supports Person-To-Merchant and I wouldn't say they are great for merchant. Indeed. I may have rephrased my sentence there. I don't trust payment providers that significantly prioritize the needs of merchants over persons. Yes Paypal may suck for the merchants, but its buyer protection is one of the significant reasons that I keep using Paypal for online payments. I do buy stuff from independent sellers in Germany and other EU countries and sometimes they behave less than ideal. Paypal keeps things fairer for the consumer. If Wero is targetting this market, they need to be competing with Paypal on equal footing. |