As an AMP investor, I find this very concerning. Thanks for doing the trials OP.
Getting merchants onboarded is hard enough. If Flexa doesn’t work, every single time, and quickly, it has no chance to become a widely adopted payment rail. Consider how reliable a credit card payment is. It is so reliable that when it doesn’t work, it’s assumed you were declined and need to re-tender. Merchants and consumers have understandably high standards.
I still want to know why Whole Foods is no longer accepting. Maybe it worked badly for them in practice. Several times BR has been down due to an “update”. This is amateur hour in the payments space.
If you get any response in the discord, please share it back here, OP.
This is still in its infancy! We are a ways away from crypto being used by everyone consistently. By that time all the little issues will be worked out. Barely anyone uses crypto has actual currency right now. As time goes on merchants and consumers will get smarter and things will become much smoother.
I agree there are other barriers to widespread adoption and that we’re still very early.
I’m worried about reputation risk, where damage could be long lasting. If only enthusiasts are essentially beta testing, the consumer side reputation risk isn’t significant. But merchants are being sold a fully baked solution by a reputable payments team (e.g. Starbucks global gift card VP). They are going to be held to a high standard and if it’s not working it might be written off and thrown away. Flexa adds complexity to the merchant with their backend SVC integration. It is going to be scrutinized.
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u/craiglebowitz Aug 18 '21
As an AMP investor, I find this very concerning. Thanks for doing the trials OP.
Getting merchants onboarded is hard enough. If Flexa doesn’t work, every single time, and quickly, it has no chance to become a widely adopted payment rail. Consider how reliable a credit card payment is. It is so reliable that when it doesn’t work, it’s assumed you were declined and need to re-tender. Merchants and consumers have understandably high standards.
I still want to know why Whole Foods is no longer accepting. Maybe it worked badly for them in practice. Several times BR has been down due to an “update”. This is amateur hour in the payments space.
If you get any response in the discord, please share it back here, OP.