Re:Richard Stallman: We Can Do Better Than Bitcoin
by Mengkudulangsat on Monday November 26, 2018 @12:16AM
(#18531236)
WeChat and Alipay are here already, but the market is already fragmented when they arrive.
They also pose the risk of vendor-lock, which is worrisome to local businesses and regulators due to their links to China. It's one thing to have a locally-approved payments monopoly, it's another thing if that monopoly is foreign-owned.
If Southeast Asia wants to produce a region-wide equivalent to WeChat / Alipay, then an open, neutral & interoperable platform is the best way to do it, politically speaking.
Re:Richard Stallman: We Can Do Better Than Bitcoin
by wingerlang on Monday November 26, 2018 @04:27AM
(#18532104)
There is the arguably* more local LINE Pay as well.
* I know it's a Japanese or Korean company, but I am not sure how much the app is used there.
No, that's not the only requirement. Other requirements include teaching large numbers of nontechnical people what the heck a cryptocurrency is, how to get and secure a wallet, how to get an account on an exchange, how to convert Bitcoin to and from their local currency, why they can't carry Bitcoin around in their pocket like cash, and who they should talk to if their Bitcoins get stolen or their exchange gets hacked.
Or, they could just get a WeChat or Alipay account, which are going to be available in southeast Asia pretty soon. Boom, done.