Could something like Venmo make use of bitcoin?

[Dafar]

Venmo is an extremely popular peer-to-peer payments app. Almost all of my friends use it, in fact even though I knew about bitcoin for years I heard about Venmo from them and now I use it simply because it's so convenient.

I understand w/ venmo you still need a bank and etc, but for people in America for example who have bank accounts venmo seems convenient enough. People send money to other people without any fees (the transfer of money into your bank acct takes 2-3 business days which bitcoin beats I guess). But how does venmo manage to do the transfers without any fees? They take fees when you pay using credit cards, but not when taking money in and out of a checking/savings account. Does venmo take a hit on these fees themselves?

And would they be able to use bitcoin to instantly transfer dollars and take less fees themselves? and since the app can "store" dollars before you withdraw them into your bank account... can it also hold bitcoin, act as a wallet and be used to buy things?


Just trying to figure out how these things work, thanks.

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[klmist]

You can deposit ven at Kraken.com and trade XBT/XVN (Bitcoin vs. Ven) there. I'm not sure if this is available in all us states, but if you have an address in Montana, New Mexico or South Carolina (the "no money transmitter license" required states) it should work, I think.

[ProkhorZ]

You can deposit ven at Kraken.com and trade XBT/XVN (Bitcoin vs. Ven) there. I'm not sure if this is available in all us states, but if you have an address in Montana, New Mexico or South Carolina (the "no money transmitter license" required states) it should work, I think.

Venmo is an app for paying in dollars, it's not related to the Ven currency

In a brainstorming session, they came up with the “ven” from vendere, the Latin word for to sell, and “mo” from mobile.

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-11-20/mobile-payment-startup-venmo-is-killing-cash

It's more like Apple Pay or TransferWise. I guess they have low costs because they process a high volume of transactions just like banks, without having to build the payment network like banks do. Using bitcoin could make these services cheaper, but it's not the low-hanging fruit. In the short term, they'll be competing with digital currency, and they're more efficient than banks, credit card companies or Western Union.

In related news, major Dutch banks recently announced they were looking in to how blockchain technology could make settlements between banks more efficient. Video in Dutch: www.rtlnieuws.nl/economie/home/gaat-bitcoin-techniek-banken-helpen

[klmist]

Aha. How confusing

[segvec]

Yes, it is quite possible.
The "killer app" is in the works... 

[botany]

Venmo is an extremely popular peer-to-peer payments app. Almost all of my friends use it, in fact even though I knew about bitcoin for years I heard about Venmo from them and now I use it simply because it's so convenient.

I understand w/ venmo you still need a bank and etc, but for people in America for example who have bank accounts venmo seems convenient enough. People send money to other people without any fees (the transfer of money into your bank acct takes 2-3 business days which bitcoin beats I guess). But how does venmo manage to do the transfers without any fees? They take fees when you pay using credit cards, but not when taking money in and out of a checking/savings account. Does venmo take a hit on these fees themselves?

And would they be able to use bitcoin to instantly transfer dollars and take less fees themselves? and since the app can "store" dollars before you withdraw them into your bank account... can it also hold bitcoin, act as a wallet and be used to buy things?


Just trying to figure out how these things work, thanks.

Do banks in US charge for withdrawal/deposits to checking/savings account? If not, Venmo seems to be doing these transactions for free (but not taking a hit on fees). I am sure this would be a good strategy as the number of users would increase and a portion of them would use paid (credit card) transactions.