
Libra is targeted at developing countries - iafrikan
https://www.iafrikan.com/2019/06/27/facebooks-libra-may-be-quite-attractive-in-developing-countries/
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vinay_ys
Unified Payment Interface (UPI) in India is a highly scalable (800million
transactions per month) mobile payment method with 160+ banks participating
with numerous mobile apps (example: Bhim, PhonePe) that is free of charge for
merchant payments and up to 30 person to person payments per month. Subsequent
P2P transactions are charged at flat ₹2.5 for < ₹1000 and ₹5 for greater than
₹1000 (highly unlikely anyone would cross the free quota per month and
actually pay this fee).

Please see statistics published by various agencies: NPCI - National Payment
Corporation of India is the organization responsible for administering UPI.
[https://www.npci.org.in/product-statistics/upi-product-
stati...](https://www.npci.org.in/product-statistics/upi-product-statistics)

RBI - Reserve Bank of India is the central/federal bank.
[https://rbi.org.in/scripts/Statistics.aspx](https://rbi.org.in/scripts/Statistics.aspx)

I don't think anyone _needs_ Libra in India. Thank you.

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gridlockd
Is it "free" from a customers's perspective, or from a merchant's perspective?

From a customer's perspective, credit cards are also "free". However, from a
merchant's perspective, the cost is 2-3% plus a constant hassle with
prospective fraud.

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plibither8
It's _free_ from both perspectives. No additional overhead charges are levied.

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writepub
India has no need for Libra, the government owned payment gateway allows for
zero transaction fee, instantaneous payments and transfers. BHIM is a consumer
wallet/app launched and maintained by the government for the same

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gridlockd
Perhaps, but can Indian expats also send money to India via this gateway? Can
you use it to order something online from another country? What about the
relative weakness of the Rupee vs a mix of reserve currencies?

Libra still makes sense as an "international" currency, even if it doesn't
make sense nationally.

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umeshunni
> can Indian expats also send money to India via this gateway?

Not yet, but I've heard that this is in the works. The hardest part of trying
to use UPI right now as an Indian expat is that you need an Indian phone
number and your bank account should be linked to it.

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slaymaker1907
You are vastly overestimating the sophistication of the US banking system.
Integrating with it is incredibly difficult since so many steps rely heavily
on trust between parties. For example, information sufficient for direct
depositing into someone’s account is sufficient for direct depositing OUT of
said account as well.

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mmsimanga
One factor to consider especially in a country like Zimbabwe where most
transactions are done through mobile phones is that electronic transactions
are now a cash cow. Traceable and taxable. 2c for every dollar transferred in
Zim goes to the government for transactions above 10 dollars. The government
is not going to let someone steal their lunch.

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crispyporkbites
Isn’t the USA the country where instant bank transfers dont exist? Where you
get charged to withdraw cash from an ATM (unless its your banks ATM)?

Most other countries have this infrastructure already, because technically
it’s trivial.

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gridlockd
What is "most other countries"? As far as I'm aware, at least in the Eurozone
ATMs also have fees (unless it's the same bank) and bank wires (SEPA) aren't
instant either.

Operating ATMs may be "trivial", but it costs money, so why would you serve
your competitor's customers cash for free?

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noneeeed
Obviously it varies between counties, but here in the UK I can transfer money
between my three banks essentially instantly (normally less than 15 seconds),
for free. And we were late to the game. The only time I pay to use an ATM is
at ones in small corner ships. Bank ones are almost always free, and you can
use any bank's machine.

Planet Money did a good episode on why the US system is so bad compared to
most other developed countries. Mostly seems to come down to the huge number
of small bank's you have, it massively complicates any attempt to roll out a
new tech platform.

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LunaSea
Until every Facebook employee is payed in Libra, including Zucks's shares, I
know where they stand on the purpose of Libra.

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n_ary
Looks interesting on a light skim. However, one key point that is always
missing, how will people buy/cash-out this libra currency? Most developing
countries have transactions going on in cash(unless it is happening in few
hundred thousands). You'd be lucky if you see a card-payment machine anywhere
except on exotic shops like car-dealership/real-estate/big brand
electronics(apple). ATMs are for rich/wealthy class only. There are no debit
cards, banks don't give out credit cards to anyone unless they have HUGE
middle-class+ transactions/income in bank history. So, how are people going to
use these fancy currencies? I have lived and visited developing countries, no
paypal, no credit-card, no debit card, no bank transfer, only paper-bills
accepted :)

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mmsimanga
Developing countries use a good deal of mobile banking. Anecdotally mobile
payments make up as much as 50% of all transactions. I am typing this on
mobile so can't really post links. Search Mpesa and Ecocash for more
information. Card processing machines are also becoming pretty common and it
is easy to transfer money from you mobile banking account to a card.

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DaTwant
Agree. Check out China where even beggars are using QR code payment methods
(though possibly as a means by payment companies and 'others' to collect data
on donators?) [https://www.businesstoday.in/current/world/beggars-in-
china-...](https://www.businesstoday.in/current/world/beggars-in-china-go-
cashless-but-there-is-more-than-what-meets-the-eye/story/279773.html)

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saravana85
Libra may be blocked in India. The Indian government is already showing its
tough face on existing cryotocurrencies

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carlosdp
Yea, the narrative in mainstream circles keep saying this is another data
grab. It's understandable given Facebook's history, but it's ignoring the fact
that they don't need more data to make this venture worthwhile. It's a
_massive_ opportunity all on its own, on the face of it.

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gridlockd
Anybody who uses VISA or PayPal but then wouldn't use Libra because of
"privacy concerns" probably doesn't realize how invasive these other companies
are.

Libra will not require a Facebook account and will supposedly not be tied to a
Facebook account, so the danger should be about the same.

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basch
If this product brings us from a world of venmo, paypal, facebook payments,
wechat etc to one where I can use any of their clients to send money to any of
the other clients, I consider it a huge win. It's so silly that my friends and
I have to agree on the same money app to send money to each other. Imagine if
I had to convince every person to use firefox before I could send them a url,
or if they needed hotmail and gmail to receive messages.

Calibra vs Zelle here we come.

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CaptainZapp
What's wrong with cash?

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gridlockd
Nothing, besides the fact that you have to physically carry it around to
transfer it.

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csomar
Most people are missing the fact that the population of the developing
countries will be more interested in the convertability of the Libra coin and
its potential stability than the day to day transactions.

Most people in developing countries don’t have access to USD, online
transactions or crypto (because of the knowledge barrier).

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m463
serious question: which is more trustworthy - facebook or the government of a
developing country?

Because corruption has been shown to keep some countries from ever getting
anywhere.

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bassman9000
Like tobacco.

