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BuyMeACoffee silently dropped support for many countries (2024)

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330 points beeburrt | 6 comments | 16 May 25 06:23 UTC | HN request time: 0.712s | source | bottom
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rwarfield ◴[16 May 25 07:07 UTC] No.44002548[source]▶
We have normalized the treatment of the financial and payments systems as things that exist primarily to perform law enforcement surveillance functions. It's the same dynamic that leads to debanking of small accounts - payments firms exist on thin margins and the potential fines for inadvertently servicing a bad actor are stratospheric, so it's entirely logical to play it safe by refusing to service anyone whose profile looks even the slightest bit risky.
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ngruhn ◴[16 May 25 07:19 UTC] No.44002616[source]▶
The alternate is crypto. That will service anyone for ANY reason.
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sabas123 ◴[16 May 25 07:32 UTC] No.44002688[source]▶
Which is not necessarily a good thing.
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notpushkin ◴[16 May 25 07:35 UTC] No.44002714[source]▶
But not necessarily a bad thing either.

If everything else fails, I know I can still have two things to pay with: cash and crypto.

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1. surgical_fire ◴[16 May 25 07:44 UTC] No.44002773[source]▶
A currency has to be accepted in order to perform its role.

Good luck buying groceries or paying the mortgage with Crypto.

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2. windward ◴[16 May 25 07:51 UTC] No.44002817[source]▶
I already can't buy things I want with Mastercard and Visa
3. notpushkin ◴[16 May 25 08:06 UTC] No.44002899[source]▶
Which is why I have a couple bank accounts. If these banks decide they don’t want to work with me anymore (happened a couple times already), or if they decide they don’t want to send money to, say, a particular country (hint hint), I’ll have crypto as a last resort.

(You conveniently left out “cash” from your reply. Cash. I’ll buy groceries with cash, if I can’t use my card.)

4. johnisgood ◴[16 May 25 08:12 UTC] No.44002928[source]▶
There are some stores that do accept BTC, but it is not widespread. It is mostly coffee shops though, not grocery stores.
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5. notpushkin ◴[16 May 25 08:40 UTC] No.44003096[source]▶
And it varies from country to country. (In any case, I wouldn’t use BTC for everyday purchases – it’s too volatile, and transfers are too expensive. As long as we’re stuck with fiat-based economy, stablecoins are the way to go, IMO.)
6. endre ◴[16 May 25 08:46 UTC] No.44003125[source]▶
there is invariably a vantage point at which non-fiat payments are accepted. this may be crypto, given that there is still infrastructure available for it to operate, but that's unlikely imo.