About 3 or 4 years ago PayPal added the option to buy cryptocurrency, which I thought I’d try. (Dumb idea 🙄)

Part of the sign up process was glitched. I retried and clicked submit one too many times, I guess. Now I’ve been unable to use PayPal for years. They blocked me because THEIR SITE was broken, but the web page essentially accuses me of being a criminal and asks for my bank records. No way in hell.

This was just for me to pay others. I can only imagine how awful PayPal is if you are a vendor.

Fuck PayPal.

  • accideath@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3·
    5 months ago

    I don’t think I could buy my groceries with crypto if I wanted to. What supermarket takes crypto? My phone provider wouldn’t either and my insurance is deducted directly from my paycheque because that’s just how it works here.

    • shortwavesurfer@monero.townEnglish
      1·
      5 months ago

      Instacart has giftcards you can buy with crypto and so does my cell provider. Sure, you absolutely could say that they don’t accept it directly, and you would be right. However, I still get my groceries in my refrigerator, and I still get service on my cell phone. So, at the end of the day, does it matter?

      • accideath@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        5 months ago

        It’s an extra step. Two extra steps actually. I can go to the store and pay or I can exchange official currency to crypto and then exchange it again to giftcards. It’s good that the possibility exists, since it’s de facto untraceable but it’s inconvenient, slower and frankly unnecessary for most people.

        • shortwavesurfer@monero.townEnglish
          1·
          5 months ago

          That’s true. Once people start getting paid in it, that’s when it’s really going to take off. I don’t think a majority of people will be paid in it until such a time as their national currencies start to hyper inflate. Ask a person in the United States, Canada, or Europe, if they would want to be paid in crypto, and the vast majority would say no. Ask a person in Zimbabwe, Argentina, Venezuela, Lebanon, etc. If they would like to be paid in crypto, and I’ll bet you’ll get a whole different answer.

          • accideath@lemmy.worldEnglish
            1·
            5 months ago

            And then, who says what crypto will be used? Bitcoin, Etherium, Monero, Dogecoin, any of the other dozens?

            • shortwavesurfer@monero.townEnglish
              1·
              5 months ago

              In most cases, it will probably be Monero or Bitcoin, primarily because those are proof of work, which means you actually have to put energy into it if you wish to break it. Keep in mind that once you have any crypto, it is extremely easy to get from that crypto to any crypto you desire. So even if your employer paid you in a crypto you did not like, it would be extremely easy to switch it into the crypto you do like and wish to use. I don’t use Bitcoin for example but I would absolutely take a job that paid me in Bitcoin and then I would immediately take that and convert it into Monero and I would use that and it would take me very little time to do so.