We are so early…
I’m going on a bachelorettes trip and the preferred payment method is Venmo… asking to pay in btc is too daunting. I did ask if anyone has Apple Pay (no fees like Venmo) but they didn’t know what it is. They all have iPhones.
These are my normal friends outside of tech.
Only one of them was curious about Apple Pay and asked to learn about it.
How did they all onboard to Venmo? It was a fad, a trend. It is working for them. The 3% fees aren’t enough discomfort for them to be curious about other technologies.
So Bitcoin products need to do two things:
1. Solve real world problems without mention of bitcoin/light network. I.e. Venmo is talking about their payment rails
2. They need to be a trend to catch on
I do think apps like Damus are on this trajectory. Let’s see how long it takes ⏳
Venmo isn’t*
Venmo surprises me by how many people want to make their transactions public.
Yeah that is true. It’s weird! Maybe people wanna show off they are going to brunch with so & so? That they bought something at farmers market? Show who they hangout with? Is this virtue signaling?
Another question… is anyone watching the Venmo feed? 😂 sad life
Creeped me out first time I used Venmo and I Saw all my friends transactions. I was like I know whose haning out with who and when. Was very weird never used again. At first most of them didn't even know it was public until I mentioned it to them.......
I used Venmo with my transactions turned to private for a while just because it made splitting the dinner bill easier. What really pissed me off about them was that you can buy bitcoin but not take it off Venmo.
Is that still the case or did pressure make them change that policy? Bitcoin still locked in?
Still locked in
What? So it’s there forever? That’s nuts!
You have to convert your BTC to fiat to make a withdrawal. So are you ever really holding BTC? Or is Venmo just holding the fiat and adjusting the conversion rate based on the current market rate of BTC? And making a fee based on the illusion of holding BTC.
I decided to look up their terms and conditions just now. They’re currently saying you can transfer it between users on Venmo, PayPal, and external wallets if you’re verified. You do have to pay a Venmo fee and a blockchain fee. Just weeks ago in practice they weren’t allowing any to be sent to an external wallet. It’s ambiguous what they consider verified.
