some of what you’re competing with:
- cash back and rewards 
- card that just works everywhere you see Visa/Mastercard logo
- virtual card that just works (Apple Pay)
- free transactions 
- the ability to reverse/dispute/refund transactions 
- the concept of credit 
- consumer habits built up over multiple decades

crypto

How to bootstrap crypto as a consumer-friendly payment method

When I joined Coinbase in 2014, my first job was trying to get merchants to accept Bitcoin payments. (I worked with @nick on this.)

Bitcoin as a consumer payment method didn't work out for a few reasons:

1. Clunky UX — after scanning a QR code, you had to send the exact amount of Bitcoin from your wallet; prices could also fluctuate during the checkout flow

2. Small user base — population of people with a bitcoin wallet was probably closer to 10M in 2014.

3. Lack of incentives — no incentive for consumers to overcome the clunky UX. Further, credit and even some debit cards offered cash back and points.

***

Fast forward 10 years, consumer adoption of crypto payments is still low. However, we have the possibility of significantly improved UX thanks to faster, cheaper and smarter blockchains, stablecoins, and at least 100M consumers with a fiat-connected crypto account.

What remains is the lack of incentives.

1/

How I would go about competing with credit / debit cards if I were USDC

How I would go about competing with credit / debit cards if I were USDC

https://warpcast.com/dwr.eth/0x4de5c76d

The answer is points systems. The proof is the travel industry and current credit card points meta.

growth @teller coming soon @clarity





























































hosting /kieran /usdc /loans 

Ya good point… and also selling the swipe codes to advertisers i.e. Apple Pay. Hmmm. 

Maybe the answer is attack the settlement layer first and then use that fund consumer incentives. I saw Jeremy post about USDC being used via Apple Pay recently too.

Which are funded because of high interest loans and swipe fees from the issuing banks.