<story><title>Fintech is making credit cards weirder</title><url>https://workweek.com/2022/08/05/fintech-is-making-credit-cards-weirder/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>anonporridge</author><text>This sounds exactly why people like Jack Dorsey are pushing for bitcoin + lightning network adoption. They&amp;#x27;ve experienced first hand how much gatekeeping has developed in the space (via Square + CashApp in his case) that make true innovation almost impossible.&lt;p&gt;An open, permissionless, and GLOBAL monetary network for final settlement and small payments (and micropayments) which no single competing nation state has unilateral control over would be a game changer for fintech innovation. The function of everything from Visa&amp;#x2F;Mastercard, Fedwire, SWIFT, Paypal, Western Union, etc, all rebase onto one global network with countless businesses competing on top of it to provide the most appealing user experience.</text></item><item><author>csomar</author><text>I was expecting this about disrupting the MasterCard&amp;#x2F;Visa duopoly and sure was I disappointed.&lt;p&gt;All fintech relies on two things: A bank and a payment network (Mastercard&amp;#x2F;Visa). This makes fintech an inferior product and most fintech I have tried have an abysmal customer service. Also, because fintech does its verification thing over the Internet, it seems that they rely more on their AI to block&amp;#x2F;ban people than a phone call. Fintech also seems to be more down to lick regulation, banks and mastercard feet at the expense of their customers.&lt;p&gt;This explosion of credit cards&amp;#x2F;offers&amp;#x2F;rewards is hardly innovation. It has already happened with banks (every big store has its own credit card) and it&amp;#x27;s usually a bad deal for customer as it requires &amp;quot;loyalty&amp;quot; to that brand.&lt;p&gt;That&amp;#x27;s it folks. The market has been cornered by a couple guys and it seems the regulatory barriers have been lifted high enough that nobody can enter again. Remember when MasterCard&amp;#x2F;Visa used to send these cards for free without any KYC whatsoever?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>metadat</author><text>It&amp;#x27;s been 45 minutes and I&amp;#x27;m still waiting for my Bitcoin transaction to go through.&lt;p&gt;BTC and Crypto at large don&amp;#x27;t seem like a viable alternative solution, or even a solution to any real problem at all.</text></comment>
<story><title>Fintech is making credit cards weirder</title><url>https://workweek.com/2022/08/05/fintech-is-making-credit-cards-weirder/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>anonporridge</author><text>This sounds exactly why people like Jack Dorsey are pushing for bitcoin + lightning network adoption. They&amp;#x27;ve experienced first hand how much gatekeeping has developed in the space (via Square + CashApp in his case) that make true innovation almost impossible.&lt;p&gt;An open, permissionless, and GLOBAL monetary network for final settlement and small payments (and micropayments) which no single competing nation state has unilateral control over would be a game changer for fintech innovation. The function of everything from Visa&amp;#x2F;Mastercard, Fedwire, SWIFT, Paypal, Western Union, etc, all rebase onto one global network with countless businesses competing on top of it to provide the most appealing user experience.</text></item><item><author>csomar</author><text>I was expecting this about disrupting the MasterCard&amp;#x2F;Visa duopoly and sure was I disappointed.&lt;p&gt;All fintech relies on two things: A bank and a payment network (Mastercard&amp;#x2F;Visa). This makes fintech an inferior product and most fintech I have tried have an abysmal customer service. Also, because fintech does its verification thing over the Internet, it seems that they rely more on their AI to block&amp;#x2F;ban people than a phone call. Fintech also seems to be more down to lick regulation, banks and mastercard feet at the expense of their customers.&lt;p&gt;This explosion of credit cards&amp;#x2F;offers&amp;#x2F;rewards is hardly innovation. It has already happened with banks (every big store has its own credit card) and it&amp;#x27;s usually a bad deal for customer as it requires &amp;quot;loyalty&amp;quot; to that brand.&lt;p&gt;That&amp;#x27;s it folks. The market has been cornered by a couple guys and it seems the regulatory barriers have been lifted high enough that nobody can enter again. Remember when MasterCard&amp;#x2F;Visa used to send these cards for free without any KYC whatsoever?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>colechristensen</author><text>&amp;gt; An open, permissionless, and GLOBAL monetary network for final settlement and small payments (and micropayments) which no single competing nation state has unilateral control over would be a game changer for fintech innovation. The function of everything from Visa&amp;#x2F;Mastercard, Fedwire, SWIFT, Paypal, Western Union, etc, all rebase onto one global network with countless businesses competing on top of it to provide the most appealing user experience.&lt;p&gt;This is not ever going to happen.&lt;p&gt;Witness today the Ethereum tumbler getting sanctioned. When a payment method gets significant enough it will either be regulated or squashed by the state.</text></comment>