this post was submitted on 31 Mar 2026
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Europe

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[–] Jay101@lemmy.world 23 points 21 hours ago (2 children)

When? This has been happening for many years now. Slower than turtle.

[–] Bloefz@lemmy.world 2 points 1 hour ago

Yes.. When please :(

[–] Tortellinius@lemmy.world 3 points 9 hours ago (4 children)

I mea, they did release Wero

[–] Bloefz@lemmy.world 3 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

Which does nothing for point of sale at present, it is only vaguely 'planned'.

In Europe we didn't really rely on credit cards for online payments anyway. It was an option but far from the only one. The problem was just that each country had their own system which was a PITA. Wero unifies those. Handy for webmasters, but geopolitically not a gamechanger.

The big problem is PoS payments where MC/Visa are king and basically have a duopoly. I don't know why Wero didn't start with the elephant in the room.

[–] Jay101@lemmy.world 2 points 8 hours ago

Yes, Wero is there it is made up of consortium of banks and not unified interface. Also, the adoption itself is very poor.

[–] jnod4@lemmy.ca 2 points 8 hours ago

Where? On what platform? How can one install and use such a thing?

[–] remon@ani.social 2 points 9 hours ago

And there are dozens of websites that accept it. Dozens!

[–] SabinStargem@lemmy.today 29 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Hopefully, Europe will offer options to Americans. I want to enjoy my perverse media, and to oppose christofascist organizations.

[–] username_1@programming.dev 199 points 1 day ago (4 children)

I don't see how breaking up with US payment systems is a problem, let alone a 24 trillion problem. Sounds like something good. The article (don't laugh, but I have read it) states the same.

[–] svcg@lemmy.blahaj.zone 7 points 10 hours ago

I feel like whoever wrote the headline fucked it up, because the article reads more like that Visa/MasterCard payments are a 24 trillion problem, and wero is a potential solution.

[–] PieMePlenty@lemmy.world 2 points 9 hours ago

Because its relative. Its good for the EU because it's taking that market back, its bad for the US because its losing that market.

[–] silver@das-eck.haus 160 points 1 day ago (2 children)

This guy read the article before he commented, everyone laugh at him!

[–] username_1@programming.dev 56 points 1 day ago (2 children)

You're not better: you have read a comment in full before answering to it. Shameful!

[–] fisch@lemmy.world 36 points 1 day ago (3 children)
[–] Kissaki@feddit.org 2 points 10 hours ago

Thanks for asking, the weather is pretty nice today.

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It's a problem for visa and mastercard, I guess πŸ€·β€β™€οΈ certainly not for Europe...

[–] BenchpressMuyDebil@szmer.info 38 points 1 day ago (5 children)

Wero lets users send money using just a phone number

No, Wero lets users send money using a smartphone. If there's no desktop interface (like Poland's BLIK) I'm gonna be disappointed. I know India's UPI runs on HMD dumbphones, would be nice to have something like this.

[–] Tortellinius@lemmy.world 2 points 9 hours ago

Well, it's a law within the EU that instant payments need to be fulfilled within 10 seconds. If you select that after logging into your bank it shouldn't be an issue, though it should be the automatic option, IMO; you shouldn't have to enable it, but rather disable it if you don't wanna send money instantly, and IMO banks should already know this. My only gripe is that most banks in Europe don't have a proper "user account" system. It's more of an address book as opposed to a contacts list. I'd prefer pressing on my peer's name through a search function on the home screen, than needing to select his name from a list after pressing the specific button for it in the menu to send money, which I've already had to press another specific button for; just to reduce the steps needed to send money. I don't see why that is not doable.

Knowing the EU and my country, the reason is "security" by difficulty. Boomer-ass continent.

[–] blackbeans@lemmy.zip 10 points 1 day ago

That's a question for your bank. Wero is a system designed for mobile payments between banks, but in 95% of all cases it's your bank implementing it for the user.

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[–] Evil_Shrubbery@thelemmy.club 51 points 1 day ago (1 children)

problem

Slop title.
The solutions are ready, super cheap, and the transition period gradual & managed.

It is a revenue problem for MasterCard & Visa, bcs no more free monies for them.

[–] exaybachae@startrek.website 111 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (3 children)

Fund tranfering should be a gov service provided at cost and maintained as a partnership between nations to make commerce easy for their citizens.

Profit shouldn't even be a concern.

[–] The_Che_Banana@beehaw.org 15 points 1 day ago (1 children)

(gov provided) services should never be for profit

[–] reksas@sopuli.xyz 12 points 1 day ago

government = people who live in the country. So government services are literally by the people for the people. trying to profit from them is like having a parasite.

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[–] whvholst@feddit.org 42 points 1 day ago (8 children)

The article omits that Wero is running on top of AWS. So still the same problem, just slightly lower in the stack.

[–] Bloefz@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

Yes but this is a simple migration away. The system itself and its adoption are far bigger barriers.

AWS

Also, when Wero started, Trump hadn't started to set the world on fire yet, so the geopolitical angle was far less pronounced. Until Jan 2025, hosting an EU service on AWS was not controversial.

[–] alfredon996@feddit.it 25 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It's easier to replace AWS with a European alternative, than Visa or Mastercard. So the problem is smaller.

[–] whvholst@feddit.org 2 points 4 hours ago

True, and I also did not mean to let better be the enemy of good. Just that we're not in the clear yet.

[–] nova_ad_vitum@lemmy.ca 17 points 1 day ago

Centralized problems are generally easier to solve than distributed problems. Depending on their architecture moving to an EU cloud provider could range from tricky but manageable to very painful , but it's a centralized IT problem that can be attacked and solved. Getting every retail vendor to support Wero is much harder, and is being solved apparently.

Valid point.
But technically an easier transition to own solutions at some point.

Wero has its roots before the overall critical industry 'digital independence' got enough attention (in the recent year), it was more about solving a specific duopoly (that a lot of banks & startups started solving anyway, just way more fragmented).

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[–] null@lemmy.org 42 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Fuck Visa and Fuck Mastercard, they have no business dictating what people are allowed to buy. Just process the fucking payment.

Even without them dictating that having absolute core infrastructure privately owned (and in a foreign country at that) is insane.

Not to mention them being profit driven & expensive.

[–] notsosure@sh.itjust.works 50 points 1 day ago (7 children)

I’ve been using Wero for a while. What’s missing are vendors that accept it online, also when hiring a car.

[–] whvholst@feddit.org 1 points 4 hours ago

That is somewhat unsurprising since it is a rebranding of the Dutch iDeal system which now is being rolled out elsewhere in the EU.

[–] timestatic@feddit.org 3 points 21 hours ago

Honestly I think long term the digital euro will be the killer even if it takes longer than Wero. Wero is nice in the meantime, adoption will probably take till end of the year and next year tho.

[–] Wizard_Pope@lemmy.world 16 points 1 day ago (10 children)

I hope Wero becomes a EU standard. Sadly our banks have their own system Flik bu the issue is you literally cannot use it to pay anywhere. But they refuse tp accept wero due to having their own system.

[–] Anafabula@discuss.tchncs.de 12 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I would much prefer a digital euro based on GNU Taler, but I guess Wero might at least be better than the status quo

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[–] huppakee@piefed.social 30 points 1 day ago

a $24 trillion problem for Visa and Mastercard maybe

[–] GreenBeanMachine@lemmy.world 34 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

It's a $24 trillion opportunity, that Americans are gonna lose.

[–] verdi@tarte.nuage-libre.fr 26 points 1 day ago

It's a serious problem, but not for Europe. Fuck US megacorps.

[–] BrickEater@lemmy.world 10 points 1 day ago (5 children)

Good, as an american, fuck em. I cant wait to see the US crash and burn.

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