Elon Musk rushes to debut X payments as tech issues hamper creator payouts
- Thread starter JournalBot
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Not only that but kicking off the payment system will, invariably, get his doors kicked in by an FBI raid on X. It is impossible he did all the regulatory prep necessary to run a bank or payment processor.
I can't wait.
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This all sounds like he wants to make some sort of company town setup where you have to use the company script to buy anything.
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We should note that the Right-wing mantra lately has been to eliminate regulations and weaken social agencies and even federal policing agencies and to attack our entire justice system while having high courts turn back the clock.
It's all part of the New Feudalism they're lusting to enable. In their nirvana, modern nation-states as we know them today would cease to exist. Musk continually baits regulatory agencies and this will be another scheme to get his worshipers to give away what freedoms they have left.
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I don't trust any fintech startup, but I don't trust X as a fintech startup the most.
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Yes. But this is about money. Not people's rights or the environment or something. The Right-Wing totes wants to scrap the EPA completely (defanging it isn't enough), CFPB, NLRB, etc etc.
But their billionaire masters wants a stable financial system. And a lot of regs over how money is handled are also derived from Patriot Act/Homeland Security Act clauses re money laundering for cartels & terrorists. So, even the most Randian Libertarian RWer doesn't want to mess with the the agencies with this oversight, they're fully in support of them due to their authortarian instincts & desire to control the financial system.
I think Musk doesn't really grok (intended) the difference between new targets his stans will cheer on and the targets he should back away from. Yet another example of overweening narcissim affecting the narcisist's survival instincts.
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So it looks like the USA will finally join the rest of the world in electronic banking.
Most of Europe has had easy electronic transmission of funds for years. In Australia I can send money to anyone if they give me their "PayID" (email or mobile phone number) without using a 3rd party product like Venmo.
The pony express speed of transactions in the USA has allowed the rise of 3rd party FinTech products that allow people to transfer money quickly. So maybe this might work in the USA - the rest of the world - maybe not.
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Belanger has moments of editorializing weirdly. It strikes me as tech bro apologia.
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The Sheep Look Up
Ars Centurion
How the fuck do they even plan KYC compliance? You're going to upload your passport to TwiX? That's legitimate insanity.
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Money means power. I didn't say their magic land made sense. Have you listened to the MAGA nutcases in congress and across society? Their stands on all kinds of issues will eventually lead to money draining from the very places they acquire it. When people's rights (See:Abortion) get threatened, they vote with their wallets.
The things Musk (and his stans) don't grok is countless. Men like him have no concept of how regular people run their lives. Step on enough toes, and watch out for your money. It'll drain fast.
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Doing that would be eye opening into how X with its shoestring staff plans to deal with PII and other critical aspects of data security.
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As I pointed out in my followup post, he clearly regretted his decision and describing it as if he had a plan strikes me as after the fact rationalization.
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The Sheep Look Up
Ars Centurion
He needs to spin up a raw milk startup called MilX so we can get the USDA in on the action. BATFE? Dept of Ed? HUD / HHS should already be getting in on his attempt to retrofit the TwiX building into a prison / dormitory.
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Really hope they have some pay-as-you-go arrangement otherwise we'll all soon be reading on Ars about how X won't pay.
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Americans I've talked to think it's magic that I can just send someone money with an email/phone number and it just goes into their bank account immediately.
America also had Apple Pay be this weird roll out that some stores are staunchly holding out on (in favour of their own inferior systems that permit greater data collection).
In Canada it was enabled and it just worked everywhere because NFC payments were already a thing for years.
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The continued success of the apparent ponzi scheme depends on funds being rarely withdrawn. It's the run on the fund that crashes them when the hoi polloi figure out they've been had.
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Seems like the opposite approach to the one espoused by Tim Berners-Lee, of open-source Pods that can be used to limit your exposure to data breaches and keep control over your data.
There's also the minor issue that the market conditions in the West are not favourable to super apps, but I'm sure the genius of Elon can overcome reality.
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No, it's not. If it was why did he never mention this payments plan until long after he was forced to honor his contract buy Twitter? If it was his plan all along why did he try to back out of the Twitter purchase to begin with?
Stop giving him credit for these random brain farts he has acting as if he's always had some master plan.
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Brain the size of a planet is multitasking, or as I call it - half-arseing everything
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It was even dumber. Not only are there still holdouts (Walmart and Home Depot being big ones) but I used to tap my Amex card to pay at cvs but as soon as Apple Pay came out they disabled the nfc reader.
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Thankfully CVS re-enabled it after the competing product they signed on to imploded. I can tap to pay or use ApplePay at any CVS I've been to in my city, Austin TX, and have been able to for a while.
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Source please. This sounds like some kind of a revisionist theory, because I don't remember that being a reason at all.
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I prefer trusting companies with a history of honoring their financial obligations as well. I also prefer companies that don’t pick on individual customers to screw over when considering where to make use of financial services.
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Longmile149
Ars Scholae Palatinae
First, I’m not sure wtf your CISO has to do with the financial instruments your company offers except, like…keeping them safe…?
But whatever.
I kinda love this.
“Our goal is for people to give us their real dollars, and then we’ll give them some buX. The amount of buX they have will go up like crazy! So many buX no one will want to cash them out for dollars! Why would you want dollars that don’t go up when you could have buX that do go up?!?”
“…right, but won’t I eventually need to, y’know, exchange money for goods and services? Won’t I need to sort of, like, spend some of my buX?”
“Ha! If you ever want to spend your buX, we’ve failed! We want you to keep those buX right here, growing and growing forever! If you spend the buX, how can they grow? Besides, nobody currently accepts buX for anything and if they did we’d want to stop that because we want to keep! Those! BuX! Growing!”
“But if I did want to buy something, I could trade my buX back for dollars eventually, right? Not that I would want to do that! Just…if. If someone did. A non-believer, let’s say. Someone who doesn’t get why buX are so great. They could trade buX for dollars…?”
“Friend, I don’t think you see what an amazing opportunity this is. I’m afraid you’re missing the big picture! You see this huge pallet of dollars? You know what, sure, I could spend it, like so, getting myself a Ferrari and a mansion and forty fuckin’ Big Macs and a private jet made from the bones of sick orphans…but you know what I can’t do with this pallet of dollars?”
“W…”
“Watch it grow, that’s right! Do you really want to waste your buX getting a few measly dollars now when you could let us keep growing those buX for you for another ten years until you’re a buXillionaire?”
“Wellllll…I guess the kids don’t need their insulin that bad…and Elon is a genius who’s taking us to Mars in a big rocket full of robot cars next year…”
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An actor who starred in a bad tv show, who has six bankruptcies, was trusted to become US president. Annoying Your Potential Customers has become a common advertising method. In a world gone mad, why couldn't a social media platform become a bank?
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Damn no, I didn't hear about that. Wow being a resident there does not sound attractive.
At least you can potentially leave a terrestrial town/city relatively easily I suppose, unlike the poor saps who end up being his subjects on Mars. Maybe this is his early planning on having X Buks be legal tender there.
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Musk-run payment services? Like I send my money but the receiver doesn't get paid and needs to sue?
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He should be careful, banking is one of the few sectors where throwing money around won't always get you out of trouble.
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Zelle's so limited as to be mostly useless. You can use it to settle up after splitting a check, maybe, (assuming your friends' banks all subscribe) but you can't use it to pay rent or buy a used car because it's limited to $500.Zelle, which also allows sending money via a phone number or email address, has also been a thing for years and is supported by basically every major US bank and numerous smaller ones. I also can use it directly in my banking app without a 3rd party product. I've been using it to send money for 3-4 years now.
Cool story, bro?
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