Brazil's government-run payments system has become dominant

Re:Brazil's government-run payments system has become dominant by kspacewalk2 on Tuesday April 08, 2025 @11:12PM (#43628557)

The flat fee is a small part of what that transfer costs. The real transaction fee is embedded in the exchange rate. 2% markup is not an unheard of amount, which I guess would make your total cost $515 and not $15.

There's a reason Wise is a huge business and people in Canada resort to "Norbert's gambit" to exchange currency with minimal transaction costs.

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Re:Brazil's government-run payments system has become dominant by Spivak on Wednesday April 09, 2025 @12:25AM (#43628856)

I think it was about 1% off the "theoretical best" exchange rate I could have gotten. But I don't exactly have access to those kinds of rates as an individual. Do crypto trades not have the same dynamic once you involve exchanges? Once you include the take from the USD ~> Crypto ~> $Other do you still come out ahead?

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Re:Brazil's government-run payments system has become dominant by kspacewalk2 on Wednesday April 09, 2025 @01:40PM (#43634936)

No idea, never owned or used crypto. I guess for large amounts the reference point should be total transaction cost using Wise and/or some version of Norbert's gambit if your currency pair is a popular one and dual-listed securities/ETFs are readily available.

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