Topic: is Venmo a huge roadblock to Bitcoin? (Read 9521 times)

There are multiple categories of mobile apps that send USD.  The categories are:

- Mobile banking
- Mobile e-commerce
- Mobile money transfer
- Mobile payment

Excluding the mobile banking apps (which nearly every major bank offers) and the B2B and B2C-only mobile payment apps (e.g., the Starbucks payment app, Google Wallet, TabbedOut, Jumio Netswipe, LevelUp/Scvngr, BokU, etc.) then your list also would include:

4.) Serve (AmEx)
5.) Dwolla
6.) Venmo
7.) AlertPay
8.) Skrill / MoneyBookers
9.) Clover
10.) HyperWallet
11.) Slash8 App
12.) Klunki
13.) KuaPay
14.) OpenCuro
15.) Boom (m-Via)
16.) Square
17.) GoPayment (Intuit)
18.) PAYware (Verifone)
19.) Stripe (to some degree can be P2P)
20.) WePay (to some degree can be P2P)

And that's just USD or primarily for the U.S.  Then there are:
 
21..) PayFirma (like Square, but Canadian)
22.) PingIT (Barclay's - UK)
23.) OboPay
24.) M-Pesa (Kenya)
25.) AirTel App (India)
26.) GCash (Philippines)
27.) Smart Money (Philippines)

and ... oh, a slew of others around the world.

The one thing they all have in common?  They are all basically methods to do what banks themselves haven't been doing.  They exist to reduce some of the friction of working with the banking system.  Some day they'll see major competition from apps that link to bitcoin (or will incorporate that functionality themselves.)

At this point, it's pretty much PayPal (if you use the gift option), so I'm not worried. Before this recent change, being able to add any source of funds, including credit cards, and transfer money back and forth for free (my friends were tossing $0.01 back and forth all day for the hell of it) made it stand out quite a bit. I guess doubters were right, that system was unsustainable.
Don't forget, for Bitcoin to be useful, you also need to set up another account (Gox, Dwolla, Bit-Pay, etc)

I see Venmo as another service in an already crowded field of competitors offering services to transfer USD, either with fees or without. The market is splintered and for each service you need to set up another account. All of these services are subject to chargebacks. How is Venmo any different from these services which have mobile apps you can use to send USD
1) PayPal
2) Chase QuickPay https://www.chase.com/online/services/quickpay.htm
3) ING Direct's P2p2 http://home.ingdirect.com/products/htmls_content/demo_p2p.html

How will all of this shake out? Probably some consolidation, but around which service, who knows?

I got that e-mail a few days ago, too. Was actually very happy to hear that 

Slight correction on that claim about zero fees:

Venmo allows the payment to be funded from a credit card.   That used to be provided at par (no fee for the transfer from a card).  Now they charge 3% apparently  (though for new users, the first $500 of charges is free from any fees).

 - http://help.venmo.com/customer/portal/articles/429494-why-is-venmo-charging-credit-card-fees-

No need to wait for the death of the dollar. The black market is not a niche: it is huge, and growing rapidly.

I'd think of it as more of a stepping stone, not a roadblock.

I'm not disputing that Bitcoin will still have niche markets. I'm still very long Bitcoin, too. Just that the biggest advantage people were trying to sell to others (easy free money transfers) is now gone. With this, it's now basically a hacker's currency.

Ok.. somebody please contact MTGOX and ask them to implement it as withdraw option like Rassah Said

+1

Show me Venmo to online poker in minutes and I'll be worried.

What if they want something that their government forbids them?

EDIT: For example, protecting their purchasing power, donating to a certain organization, gambling online, etc..

I don't think the point that "Venmo uses fiat" is going to win anyone over. No one really cares. People only care about how easy it is to covert what comes in as paychecks into stuff they can buy to make themselves happy. I guess global convenience is the main major selling point to push now.

Accusations of money laundering in 3, 2, 1...

Venmo still uses fiat junk paper, some of us still call it money... I think that's the only real point that will make bitcoin win in the end.

More and more people are travellers. The globality of bitcoin will win people over (eventually).

Bitcoin is not deflationary. It's inflationary on an asymptotic pattern. The system never reduces the money supply, thus it's not deflationary (silly fools who lose their keys notwithstanding).

Long term, it'd be correct to say Bitcoin is neither deflationary nor inflationary... it's simply constant in supply. This concept would make a central banker's head explode.

Therefore, I ask, who's working on a near zero fee escrow service, one of which locks (not stores) bitcoin transactions until both parties are satisfied?

~Bruno~

Its a competitor since you can send money for free.
 
But will you be able to do escrow?
Bitcoin if the Bip 16 ever gets implemented solves an old problem of trading, for free.

Bitcoin is private.
What made internet popular Porn...

What can you now pay for anonymously with Bitcoins?

Can you transfer a small coin or do micro transactions to your relative in Asia?

Overnight transfers. Venmo offers the fastest bank transfers available anywhere. Request a transfer to your bank account, and the money will be there the next morning.

Bitcoin is faster than Venmo...

There is still a huuuuge market for Bitcoin

Venmo seems to take care of 1, 2, and 3, relegating Bitcoin to only things outside USA, or for wealth storage. It just sucks that Bitcoin's #1 advantage - free, easy, mobile-to-mobile payments - is now gone and outweighed by it's difficulty to obtain.
Are there services like this in Europe?

I don't see Venmo as a problem. It's just a way to transfer USD. I want a currency that
1) is widely accepted
2) easy to transfer in person
3) easy to transfer online
4) holds its purchasing power over long periods of time

Venmo is just another attempt to help make USD easier to transfer online. It may or may not work. But it's still dealing with USD. While BTC has some hurdles to clear, the one huge trump card that BTC has and the big Achilles' heel of the USD is #4. The USD has lost over 95% of its purchasing power since the Federal Reserve system was created in 1913. See
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_the_Federal_Reserve#Inflation
BTC is designed to be deflationary over long periods of time. So not only would BTC hold its purchasing power over long periods of time but its purchasing power will likely grow over long periods of time. Bitcoin is revolutionary in many ways. Will BTC have success equal to other fiat currencies? Will BTC be successful but only on a small niche market level? Will BTC fizzle out and be worth nothing or close to nothing? Stay tuned to find out.

The USD has been around for a while. We already know the endgame result, continued loss of purchasing power. Maybe only economics freeks and computer geeks are currently affected by BTC. But just as USD policy affects everyone in the US (and most other countries), BTC has the potential to affect everyone.