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Comment by madaxe_again

7 hours ago

Pix is ok - but it’s clunky to use and has a single point of failure.

On the former - paying is:

  Unlock phone
  Launch app
  Authenticate
  Choose to pay with pix
  Scan QR code
  Enter amount
  Authenticate again
  Wait
  Payment made
  Show cashier your phone

Which is considerably more involved than a contactless payment.

On the single point of failure side of things - I was at an event in Brasilia a month or so back, pix grinds to a crawl, taking 10+ minutes per transaction, and the drinks queues rapidly got out of hand. As nobody accepts cash any more, and because nobody has a card any more, this meant they sold practically no drinks.

So it ain’t bad but tbh passing bits of paper back and forth is still easier.

There's Pix contactless payment. Both Samsung and Google wallet support. Samsung added a few weeks ago. Google added 1 or 2 years ago.

You can actually pay QR Code Pix now with Samsung by just opening the camera too.

Apple refuses to implement Pix on Apple Pay, and regulatory agencies are trying to change that...

Pix integration with Google Pay it's just amazing.

Imagine the situation in the US as if every app or website magically used Google Pay.

Well, that's Brazil now if you use Android. Because as soon as you copy a Pix code, it will prompt Google Pay :) And every service in Brazil have Pix... Even international ones as Stripe supports...

  • USD is a hard currency unlike the BRL. It is not supposed to move that fast by design. Google “Regulation E”. Brazil has no such strong provisions for protecting unauthorized transfers out of your account

Doesn't seem too different from QRIS in Indonesia, authentication is relatively painless since some apps offer either pin or fingerprint. Being open standard (multiple banks, electronic wallet and payment gateways support it, multiple payment apps support it, all interoperable) probably help since there's never any delay I've experienced for years, and this system is handling from small payment on roadside hawkers to electronic purchase in large stores both offline and online.

More fancy payment flow are also available, such as vendors generating one-time QR code that already include the payment amount, and the user apps generating one-time QR code that the vendor scan, thus switching some of user steps to the vendor.

In most cities I've lived and visited, using QR is far more convenient than paper. Good luck using contactless when most phones don't support it, and even when Visa & MasterCard pushed their contactless standard, I never encounter a single vendor with a working machine (this range from small shops to large hypermarket). Maybe because they have bigger MDR than QR, but from customers PoV contactless simply don't work, until QRIS also adopt NFC and suddenly it's workable (but not widespread yet since most phones still don't)