Bitcoin Forum

I was told about the app "Venmo" where you can send money for free though an app on your phone.  Its very easy, a lot easier than using btc.  One of the big things btc supporters tout is how easy it is to send money, well this app does just that.  Does anyone else think apps/companies like this are slowly making btc useless?

Oh for crying out loud, another one? People don't want to use central bank fiat. That's the advantage. Go use the app if you don't want to use bitcoin.

There is nothing new about Venmo. You send them money then they pass it on.  ???
If you buy with a credit card you pay 3% and are subject to all the rules of fiat. Can I send it to my friend in Botswana?

As far as I can tell it is no different than paying someone with a credit card except that it requires less typing because you have to set up and fund an account in advance. Bitcoin is actually revolutionary and faces no threat from a remix of the same old cobbled together systems.

Is Venmo really completely free?


Almost, but if you happen to use a credit card or shitty bank, you most certainly have fees.

This is awesome, another 2 bit entry to help create chaos and confusion in the e-payment space. A seething boiling stew of me-too payment apps and proprietary systems.

I like this situation because, merchants are just gonna say "Aaaaargh, enough! What payment system is device, national currency, and country agnostic? We'll just go with that one.."

Venom is just another Painpal clone; reversible and they are in control, not you

Thats like saying, who needs cars if there are buses and trains  ::)

Haha. That is an apt analogy.  :D

The big thing is people not wanting to support banks/fiat.
You are not educated enough when it comes to bitcoin.

Do your own due diligence bub.

For the record, I use both venmo and bitcoin.

I do agree that Venmo is a REALLY good company and they have a bright future against paypal!

But, I believe this will have nothing to do with bitcoin, because bitcoin has many more features than just easy fund transfers.

This is really Apples/Oranges comparison.

Bitcoin is a protocol, an open source set of procedures and policies in software that can be used by anyone, for really "anything".

Similar to "e-mail" which is not OWNED by anyone, or any company, but can be used by anyone: nobody "owns" or controls e-mail but you can "use email" via Yahoo, Google, Microsoft, Joe's Independent E-Mail Provider, etc.  Whatever.

In the early days of the evolution of the INTERNET, there was America Online.

AOL provided an easy, simple interface to using e-mail that a lot of people, beginners at the time, THOUGHT was all there was to e-mail... and they often even thought that AOL was "The Internet" entirely itself.

That didn't last long though: eventually "The Internet" evolved up, up and away!  And it's evolved way beyond what only AOL could ever possibly control. 

NOW we have Skype, Facebook, BitTorrent, TOR and the darknet... never mind a zillion different ways to use and access e-mail.

And AOL is a distant memory, barely used anymore at all by anyone and hardly even remembered much.

So, what is the OP here saying, TL;DR ....? 

"Could the VENMO "app" stop bitcoin?"   

Well, ask yourself: did AOL's simple & easy e-mail service STOP the total evolution of the INTERNET (not just email) into what we have today?  ;D

Except 99.9% of people do use banks/govt issue fiat, only maybe 0.1% of people use bitcoin, if that.

And believe me, I am educated when it comes to bitcoin.  I'm not saying I personally use that app or endorse it, but when you tell a person about how they can use bitcoin chances are they will say, "I can already do that with this Venmo app!"  Just pointing out that companies are taking note of bitcoin, and making it harder for your average joe to go through the hassle of learning how to use bitcoin and then actually getting some to use.

on a side note, venmo is a massive scammer vehicle on localbitcoins, just like painpal, people use venmo payment and then reverse it

Where are you from?
i live in USA ppl here rarely have problem with current fiat.

Speaking of Venmo, that reminds me of a huge disappointment I had recently:

I had gotten an issue of Businessweek in the mail, and on the cover was a large photo of someone cutting a cash-filled wallet in half with scissors. The headline on the cover read-
"The wallet's days are numbered. And the cashless world already has its first big winner."

I opened up the magazine excitedly, waiting to find the main article detailing Bitcoin's revolutionary payment features.

Instead the whole story was about Venmo, and how it is revolutionizing the cashless, electronic, person-to-person payment.
Fucking Venmo


Swing, and a miss, Businessweek.

But the thing is they are right. You can't underestimate how brainwashed the majority of people are into the idea tat there is only one way to pay/get paid (fiat). I think part of the larger problems in getting more people to use bit coin is getting them to realize the govt fiat system does NOT have everyone's best interest in mind. Then they would realize how beneficial a block chain system can be when it comes to accountablity.

Fully agree man, sadly.

Here is Henry Ford's famous quote from 1922 regarding the US's flawed system:

It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.

^ This quote is still so relevant today.

Don't disturb the sheep and their complacency towards the system; don't rock the boat.

Also attributed to Mark Twain I believe.

They are alternatively mildly positive, but more often highly contemptuous of bitcoin.

So really I'm not saying I'm all for the venmo app, I have never personally used it, but when I heard of it this past week I instantly thought "wow that is something i could already do with bitcoin!"

It seems that companies are taking note, and doing everything they can to get into the payment game, which seems to be a hot market right now.

Furthermore, I do not think the US can sustain the level of spending that is being expanded every single day by the current administration.  I think its pretty clear that when you have exponentially growing national debt, that America as a whole is headed down a bad road.  So dont think I'm advocating this app, I'm simply stating that most people would be much more inclined to use this app then learn/use bitcoin.

I wouldn't be surprised if Venmo adds bitcoin functionality to their app, honestly.  Someone should suggest it.  I might myself, but the next several days are crazy, so if you're reading this, feel free to do it.

I read the BusinessWeek article - it was pretty interesting.  And yes, they charge to use credit cards because credit cards charge the merchants (Venmo in this case) to use credit cards - a lot of their subscribers were just using Venmo to get credit card rewards points and since they originally didn't charge for credit card use, they were seriously hemorrhaging money.  Not exactly what you'd call a good business strategy, which is why the fee was eventually introduced for credit card use.

And to jcoin200 - technically, if you're thinking of the recent price downturn for bitcoin, you should realize that the price of a bitcoin has actually been trending back upwards lately.  It went all the way down to $280 or so for a bitcoin and now is at $377.58 / bitcoin per bitstamp prices.

I didnt necessarily mean the recent drop, but overall lackluster usage growth.  Maybe everyone here just thinks that btc will catch on overnight, no that it hasn't gained a lot of popularity, but it seems that with all the money going into the btc infrastructure, it would have spread further than it has.  My other point was that long term, it looks like apps like this will catch on much faster than bitcoin due to their ease of use, and it could be a negative effect on btc usage.

I don't, personally, think it'll catch on overnight.  Maybe it'll never catch on to the point we'd like it to, it's entirely possible. 

I think a major problem with bitcoin is that it doesn't really solve a problem that most people have.  By people, I mean the majority of people, the consumers, people who buy stuff.  It's a huge asset for businesses, of course, because they don't have to worry about charge backs and all that jazz, but it also introduces other problems for said businesses.  Most businesses still pay most of their bills in fiat, which is why they use the bitcoin -> fiat conversion for the most part.  One problem businesses would have with bitcoin is returns: there are probably gonna be people wanting to return whatever they bought.  Do you give them their bitcoins back at the exact bitcoin amount they bought the item to you and incur an exchange rate risk / benefit, or choose to make it the fiat value of what it was at the time of purchase?

You're quite right, apps like this are easier to use than bitcoin.  The interview on insidebitcoins.com (http://insidebitcoins.com/news/andreas-antonopoulos-lays-out-the-3-pillars-of-bitcoin-mass-adoption/26925) had a great point.  Yeah, usability sucks right now, and it talked about a service that abstracts out the public key of people's bitcoin addresses to people to make it much easier to send someone money.  Which is a great idea, it's like creating a domain name system for bitcoins like there is for the internet so you don't have to manually type in IP addresses to get to websites.  Of course, for this to really work well, this system have to have at least a double abstraction layer so that it would point to a whole wallet full of bitcoin addresses, not just one wallet address, in the same way that a major website like Google is served from a different server depending on where you are in the world.

Anyway, I guess you could say my point is give it time.  People are creating apps to make bitcoin easier to use too.  Remember, fiat's been around for hundreds of years (in the current incarnation anyway), bitcoin has only existed since 2009.  I'd say the growth in bitcoin use since then given the relatively short time period is pretty amazing personally.

If we are to speculate, than there will be lot of attribution to the downfall. but the end question is, which story will create the next surge?