The merchant/processor/issuer network with all the correct incentives is (nearly) impossible to replicate. Visa and Mastercard work more or less, perfectly.
The only entities that need/want "instant, non-recourse payments" are fraudsters.
In the EU countries with local instant bank payments schemes they are much more popular with consumers than credit cards when paying attrusted merchants, who in turn pay around a quarter in fees of what they'd have to pay for cards. No need for expensive credit cards schemes in Europe any more.
How is that better than a card payment? Cards are accepted by far more merchants, have dispute rights, are inexpensive (in Europe) to process, supported by Apple & Google Pay, superior checkout experience, etc.
I've never used their dispute system, and I don't think that holds much value in Europe. At least in Germany a contract is a contract, if I claw back the payment the other party will just start the collections process. A process that has teeth and generally will recover the money from me, worst case by garnishing wages.
On the other hand Visa and MasterCard are not neutral actors. They have used their market power in the past to pressure merchants to change according to American moral values. And with the current administration I have little faith that this will stay at moral values
The whole flow is so much better than card purchases, where you have to enter all the data (or see your password manager's autofill fail) and then you have to go to your credit card provider's app to acknowledge the transaction.
Cards are accepted by far more merchants,
The vast majority of Dutch online transactions are done because pretty much every Dutch online shop supports it. Also many international shops through Shopify and Stripe. Many Dutch online shops do not support credit card payments. So iDEAL is the far lower friction option here. And there is no American company in between (at least for most national payments). It's great to see this system, that served us two decades by now finally get rolled out across Europe. They tried it before in the early 2010s, but the non-Dutch banks were fighting turf wars.
1. Credit cards are not that common. People usually have debit cards. Those can sometimes be used online but they're not widely accepted. My debit card is Maestro, which is not accepted in many places.
2. Even with my Mastercard credit card, the process is still inconvenient. For small purchases, it's fine. But for larger ones, there is an annoying second factor authentication, I have to enter a special password, and the wait to receive an SMS.
3. Visa and Mastercard fees. Most of the time these are paid by the merchant. But sometimes the customer has to pay more if the payment method is credit card. Some places don't accept these at all.
In general iDEAL is simple, secure and convenient. Not only to pay online, but also for example for splitting a bill with friends. I'm very happy to see this being adopted more widely in Europe.
Cards are reliant on US companies -> Visa / Mastercard. The European Payment Initiative wants to remove reliance on the US. Perhaps there can be a ECB payment rail/network that would support cardlike payments too.
It's not really nationalism since this is a European effort across multiple countries. But for all of them, it will improve the national security posture.
The only superior aspect of Visa/Mastercard payments is that they are more widely accepted, and that's something that can be changed.
OpenAI has "open" in their name but is closed off to public access and input
Google used to have a motto "don't be evil"
Who enforces the definition of language? Who demands compliance?
Soon as we go down the path of policing and insistence on one true dogma, we veer into religious holy war type behavior.
Obsession with semantics of syntax is a sort of theism even if the syntax and semantics do not refer to the commonly accepted tropes of a specific religion.
In this case, it has to do with how they're classified under Delaware law as a corporate entity.
I'm not a lawyer (I don't even play one on TV, damn you Odenkirk) so I can't tell you what that means as far as case law for companies getting punished for behaving badly, but in this case, there is supposedly some sort of legal backing for the classification.
I know PBC; legal semantics that dictate various financial terms. I also know the specifics because for some reason those specifics matter to some people, and it's been personally beneficial to have more than an awareness of such legalese. Makes true believers feel I am living up to their "one of us!" means testing.
I accept they matter to others but reject such exists as anything but contemporary ethno-objects. Similar to how I acknowledge Christianity exists but am not a disciple of the dogma; I have to accept others believe but do not have to pledge allegiance myself.
Aside from engineering and healthcare, machine operation, with real safety implications, everything else is just parroting and social role-play.
Being a VHS copy-paste of generational semantics isn't the flex you want it to be. Patronize harder though.
They've been very clear about their mission, they're doing more than anyone else when it comes to it, and if you've ever interviewed with them you'd know how critical it is to them.
But I guess it's easier to make a glib comment than look these things up.
People extracting value from labor to enrich themselves at the expense of society and then using those riches to further corrupt society, to the point where a few dudes own most of the country does not align with my politics.
That's why I'm a socialist and I would invite anyone who thinks things might not be going in the right direction to consider that as well.
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