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Brazil's government-run payments system has become dominant

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666 points jcartw | 1 comments | 08 Apr 25 10:59 UTC | HN request time: 0.397s | source
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SwiftyBug ◴[08 Apr 25 11:48 UTC] No.43620583[source]▶
I've been living in Brazil for the last 20 years.

Pix revolutionised the way we transact in Brazil. I've used Pix to pay for things that cost only cents, and I have a friend who bought her house using Pix. The system just works for any transfer amount. And it's so easy to use.

Its speed is truly baffling, and so is its reliability. Never have I failed to make a Pix payment because of downtime. I never cease to be amazed by how fast money arrives in my Brazilian account when I make a withdrawal directly from my EUR wallet on Wise. I receive a push notification from my Brazilian bank before Wise finishes running the animation of confirmation of withdrawal. It's like magic.

And it's so widespread that nowadays I don't even question whether someone accepts Pix. When I get in a taxi, no matter how old the driver is, it's certain that they take (and prefer) Pix.

I've even had homeless people ask me for Pix instead of change on multiple occasions.

Cryptocurrencies don't stand a chance.

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babypuncher ◴[08 Apr 25 16:38 UTC] No.43623692[source]▶
I've been saying for over a decade that crypto makes no sense for micropayments and the only reason traditional methods don't work is because they are run by rent-seeking middlemen like VISA.

Watching the Indian and Brazillian governements solve this problem by by building the payment networks themselves and removing the profit incentive has felt vindicating.

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matheusmoreira ◴[08 Apr 25 17:59 UTC] No.43624661[source]▶
> removing the profit incentive

You're far too optimistic. The current administration is trying to work itself out of a major economic crisis and there's nothing they would like more than to tax the crap out of every single Pix transaction.

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owebmaster ◴[08 Apr 25 21:36 UTC] No.43626708[source]▶
Major economic crisis? 4 years growing >= 3% doesn't look like a crisis to me.
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chgs ◴[09 Apr 25 06:46 UTC] No.43629496[source]▶
I assume op is talking about if it were implemented in the US.
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1. matheusmoreira ◴[09 Apr 25 19:16 UTC] No.43636447[source]▶
Not at all. I thought twice before discussing this because brazilian politics aren't the point of this thread. The fact is Brazil is facing a major crisis due to stupid fiscal policy. Government spending is high and taxes need to make up for it. They were stupid enough to increase taxes on fuels, thereby making everything more expensive.

This is a country with obscenely high interest rates, currently at over 14% per year. It's just ridiculous. And inflation is still hovering between 4% to 5% per year, just under pandemic levels. The solution is for the government to stop spending money. They don't want to do that, they want to increase taxes instead. As a result, we're at record breaking taxation levels, last year Brazil achieved its highest tax revenue since 1995.

The current administration spent the last two years crying about the central bank's high interest rates. I can't even fathom what'd happen to this country if they got what they wanted. Mercifully, central bank has some degree of autonomy from their stupidity. After a couple years they get to appoint the head of the central bank. It turned out even their own guy wasn't stupid enough to lower the rates.

I think the only reason they haven't taxed Pix yet is the fact Pix is too popular already. I have no doubt they're still gonna manage to increase revenue by cross referencing Pix data for tax purposes.