Eftpos, the payment system widely used in New Zealand for more than 30 years, is plummeting in popularity. The thought of them disappearing altogether is concerning for some people who don't like using smartphones or want to avoid the extra fees that come with PayWave. But while Eftpos faces an uncertain future, new and cheap forms of payment are starting to emerge. Tom Taylor reports.
I hate that we're heading towards a world where Visa, Mastercard, Google and Apple basically control all our money and payment systems. And everyone is enthusiastically embracing it!
You have to have some system where every vendor from the taxi driver in wellington to the chinese supermarket in auckland to the stand selling noodles in singapore can take your money and give you what you want. You think this can be done with a mom and pop operation? You think it can be done without a centralised system?
People talk about how crypto can solve all this but the same people can't agree on what crypto to use and have no idea what the transaction rate of global payments are or the fact that transaction costs in most crypto payments are outrageously high.
Yeah, because I don't even need to take the card out of my wallet.
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It would be incredibly simple for the reserve bank to set up "Kiwicoin" or whatever, and tie it to EFTPOS.
Is this not already controlled by the banks?
What alternative is there? The wild west of crypto?