I’ve long been annoyed that everyone, including myself uses Paypal/ Venmo for moving money around. What alternatives do you find useful? Here’s a list (https://alternativeto.net/software/venmo/). GNU Taler looks viable (https://taler.net/en/index.html). I would love to have your thoughts!
Zelle
I’ve seen Zelle recommended. And as it turns out my bank uses it, as well. From Alternativeto:
License Model: Free, Proprietary Platforms; Android, iPhone
Zelle® has partnered with leading banks and credit unions across the U.S. to bring you a fast, safe and easy way to send money to friends and family. Money moves quickly - directly from bank account to bank account.
XMR / Monero - open source, fungible, private digital cash
It usually can’t be used with retailors, but you can send your friend circle lunch money and the like easily. https://www.getmonero.org/
If the retailer supports bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies, you can pay with Monero using an exchange with a flat rate such as https://exch.cx or another provider listed on Kyc not me.
Money transfer platforms are even worse than chat apps in terms of how acceptance dictates usefulness. You might convince a couple of friends to use xmpp instead of whatsapp. But its near impossible to get major outlets to integrate new payment methods. Especially if that platform advocates privacy and therefore doesn’t offer a return on invest based on user data. I don’t think we’re gonna see true alternatives without government regulation, and even then…
GNU Taler looks interesting, but is it usable today?
It’s apparently built around exchanges, and I don’t see any exchanges mentioned on the site. Do any actually exist?
The FAQ mentions wire transfers, which have famously high fees that would have to be passed on to users somehow. Aggregating payments could theoretically mitigate the cost of transfers, but only at high volume, which won’t help most people. Do they have a plan to solve that? (ACH transfers are practically free, but I don’t know if they fit Taler’s design.)
No, but it has potential to become the new digital euro in Europe. I hope it does.
I don’t quite understand how it works yet, so wonder: would it work in sanctioned locations, like how, say, Monero can?
Taler is not ment to be completely censorship resistant. It takes the side of dealing with goverment, law and other things and is expected to be used in areas with working democracy.
A private alternative to MasterCard, PayPal, Stripe, etc. not a new currency or completely different banking system. And we need it.
I like GNU Taler because it’s privacy preserving for the customer, is Free, Open Source, and is self hosted. And also because it’s not a new/ different currency.
Related: I think FedNow (USA) might enable transfers between individuals once the tools and user-facing services are developed. It’s very new.
It’s worth noting that any way to electronically move money is unlikely to stay both private and convenient for long after getting popular, because governments generally don’t like that.
GNU Taler would be the future privacy-focused alternative if you live in europe. Only if EU sees the potential it has and decides to use it for the upcoming digital euro. For now, you can either use cash irl and monero online. The privacy GNU Taler provides in an online state is between normal debit card payments and cash, while offline usage is close to cash.
Digital euro: https://www.ecb.europa.eu/euro/digital_euro/html/index.en.html
GNU Taler: https://taler.net/en/
