News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, and eBay exit Facebook’s Libra ... by lacker on Friday October 11, 2019 @08:45PM (#21229714)
It seems silly to say there is no audience because it’s already possible to transfer money. Facebook is all about cloning an existing product and making it easy for millions of people use it by putting it in an app they already use for an hour every day. I think if they are permitted to launch, they will get a lot of people to use it.
Re:Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, and eBay exit Facebook’s Libra ... by john_moscow on Friday October 11, 2019 @09:02PM (#21229799)
I am a happy customer of both a bank and a grocery store. If one day the grocery store decides to also open a bank, I won't suddenly move my accounts there just because I go to the grocery store every week. That's why the grocery stores trying to offer credit cards usually have some loyalty programs (e.g. points/discounts for in-store purchases). And BTW, they typically just partner with existing banks and not try to butt into a heavily regulated market with no previous experience.

And if I never needed to have a bank account before, just being able to open it while paying for my food won't suddenly create the need for it.

Re:Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, and eBay exit Facebook’s Libra ... by alasdair_ on Friday October 11, 2019 @09:30PM (#21229919)
You are not the target customer.

Grocery store handle a surprisingly large amount of money transfers and act as pseudo-banks to many of the unbanked. Some of them have their own banks on top and others have bank branches in them. Lots of people use these services.

Re:Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, and eBay exit Facebook’s Libra ... by cjbest on Friday October 11, 2019 @10:48PM (#21230296)
Interestingly the grocery store bank thing more or less happened in Ontario and it’s quite good/popular: https://www.pcfinancial.ca/en
Re:Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, and eBay exit Facebook’s Libra ... by john_moscow on Friday October 11, 2019 @11:10PM (#21230392)
I am actually a happy user of this one (Vancouver, BC), but solely because the effective discount you get for using their card in the store is considerably higher than my regular card gives (there's a complicated system of points that add up nicely). And, yep, I still use my regular Visa Infinite for all other purchases because you can't beat their insurance and cashback rate.
Re:Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, and eBay exit Facebook’s Libra ... by alasdair_ on Saturday October 12, 2019 @08:43PM (#21237417)
Tesco, one of the largest supermarket chains in the world, also has a bank: https://www.tescobank.com/
Re:Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, and eBay exit Facebook’s Libra ... by erikpukinskis on Saturday October 12, 2019 @12:01AM (#21230578)
In the U.S. it is quite common for grocery stores to have a small bank branch inside them for exactly the reason you cite.
Re:Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, and eBay exit Facebook’s Libra ... by khuey on Saturday October 12, 2019 @12:32AM (#21230699)
> they typically just partner with existing banks
Re:Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, and eBay exit Facebook’s Libra ... by finish on Saturday October 12, 2019 @12:21AM (#21230654)
Grocery stores or Walmart?
Re:Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, and eBay exit Facebook’s Libra ... by jpindar on Saturday October 12, 2019 @03:39PM (#21235670)
Grocery stores often have a branch of an existing bank inside them, but the ones that don't often provide some financial services like cashing checks.

Wal-marts cash checks, do money transfers, and provide debit cards which act as a pseudo-bank account since they can be used with direct deposit etc.

Re:Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, and eBay exit Facebook’s Libra ... by throwaway1777 on Friday October 11, 2019 @09:30PM (#21229918)
That’s not an apples to apples comparison. A grocery store doesn’t have a network effect, Facebook does. That’s a powerful thing when we’re talking about products that exchange value with other parties in the network.