manually copy static numbers and worry that someone else might steal and abuse the static password that secures access to my own money.
I'm not sure what this has to do with fiat currency.
Can’t do that if someone steals your crypto wallet or simply doesn’t deliver the goods/services you payed for.
Just read their reply as "traditional payment methods". Nothing really protects credit/debit card transactions, the security of which is basically the emperor isn't wearing clothes.
I'd even say the security to directly access my bank via customer support relies on obvious, basically public, identifiers that to me seem somewhat trivial for a potential attacker to socially engineer.
… parent's "solution" does strike me a bit like "meet the new boss, same as the old boss", though.
duh?
You already have a bank account, and your bank already knows how to talk to literally any other bank, because by law they have to all talk the same protocols, so you can just use your bank card to pay for everything, anywhere. No need for cards from private companies like Visa or Mastercard that saw a failed banking system and went "Let us fill that niche, it'll be so convenient! For a large fee, of course".
And it really is a failed banking system: the fact that Interac in North America was able to go "hey we 'invented' EFT and got your bank to sign onto that, because they refuse to directly talk to other banks so you can't move money from one account to another. It'll only cost you a dollar each time!" is just insane.
In the US you basically always get a debit card with a bank account but not everyone gets a credit card, either because they are wary of credit or can't get a decent one.
US consumers have credit cards on top of debit cards because they really, really want access to credit. Even overdrafting is really common and a desirable feature for a large chunk of the US population.
You seemingly know much more about the backend than me, so I am still a little confused by your comment, about Interac, for example. The US system allows for consumer-to-merchant debit payments no problem, whatever fees there are are totally invisible to consumers. (I think it's lower than the credit interchange fee?) I can also transfer my money from bank to bank without fees, although sometimes it takes a couple days. Where it really falls down is peer-to-peer instantaneous transfers. There are different things becoming popular but I don't think any of them are particularly good, and reversibility is really important in the US market and systems like Zelle don't seem to appreciate that.
I think attacking it from a different angle- a payment network owned by the merchants (as a cooperative) themselves, would be a better bet. Merchants used to lend money to their customers on account all the time, it makes sense for them to return to their roots and issue their own cards, that work on their own network (for interoperability).
I would expect that if there was a "scan this QR code to pay" system, that the app you're using to pay would show you the amount about to be charged and that you would have to approve it.
I don't see anything wrong with it.
Apple Pay and Google Pay could have easily worked using QR codes rather than NFC. The cash register would just need a QR code that was an encoded JSON payload that included the amount to be charged, a merchant name, and a merchant ID. You'd scan it using your chose payments app and the app would say something like "You're about to pay $13 to Bob's Burgers. Approve?" and you click Yes and you're done.
at least to incentivize people through premiums to make it a little harder for their information to be stolen so that we as a society don’t have to pay higher fees collectively
I don't mean "it would be uneconomical", I mean the level of power required would present national infrastructure challenges if not be outright impossible.
That said visa/mastercard may have agreements that prevent this. If I were Amazon and interested in the long game I’d try to sue them for anti-competitive/monopoly status and remove that contingency.
What’s crazy is how we have a 2-3% inflation that could go away without these fees, and that’s not part the discussion on larger inflation.
There is no way to disrupt NFC payments and no need to - they are already secure, user friendly and can be used by any other major payment provider which gathers the critical mass.
I believe the infra is cheap while fraud is expensive.
What's even more damning is that the online payment flow is a retrofit over outdated and vulnerable technology. Payment fraud could be eliminated almost entirely by a new payment system design.
The credit card companies are simply massive and slow monopolists begging to be disrupted, that nobody has the capital and courage to attack.
Who pays for the chargeback dispute process?
A company I've worked for has the letters to prove it. You do not want to get a certified mail envelope from MasterCard (not a merchant or bank, MasterCard) containing a letter with a short deadline.
Needless to say, shit got fixed. Quickly.
Couple this with the fact that interest rates are so high right now, that you would also likely get impaled on the interest of any loans you took.
Maybe ask for favorable terms from merchants, but then you are reliant on the wolves to bring a better life to the sheep.
So frustrating.
It's incredible this day and age I have a more intuitive, user friendly and secure payment workflow for crypto - just scan a QR code - while for fiat payments I have to jump through hoops, manually copy static numbers and worry that someone else might steal and abuse the static password that secures access to my own money.