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Ask HN: MoonPay vs Stripe - who will become the web3 payment solution?

12 points by ck_one ↗ HN
I am wondering about what HN thinks about web3 payment solutions and if Stripe is already too late after the huge MoonPay funding round.

MoonPay funding: https://cointelegraph.com/news/crypto-fintech-moonpay-reportedly-aims-for-3-4b-valuation-in-first-vc-funding

35 comments

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colesantiago
Why Stripe? Can't they just acquire MoonPay and be done with it?
ck_one
I think the situation will be similar to when Zuck tried to acquire Snapchat. MoonPay is sitting on a gold mine and they know it.
aliswe
web3?
ck_one
web3 == crypto. People use this term more often lately since crypto has a bad reputation.
meiraleal
No, web3 is decentralized web. Crypto powers it.
Arvand
Stripe has incredible distribution. For the many merchants already using Stripe, enabling cryptocurrency payments could, depending on its implementation, be as easy as toggling a switch. That's a lot easier and less costly than integrating a new payment processor from scratch. For new merchants, adopting Stripe would mean being able to accept cryptocurrency payments AND benefitting from Stripe's existing product suite and experience. They've solved a lot of difficult problems really well.

Despite the head start other crypto payment processors may have had, imo none have yet been able to produce a developer experience (or even just documentation) anywhere near the quality of Stripe. Also, that "head start" might be a head start in accepting crypto specifically (though Stripe did do this at one point), but it's not a head start when it comes to accepting payments, more generally. I think the things that make Stripe the best payment processor will translate pretty smoothly into making them the best crypto payment processor, too.

I'm not certain that Stripe will become the number one cryptocurrency payment processor, but I think it's likely. I certainly wouldn't put it past them.

ck_one
I am not sure if the relationship to merchants will be enough here. MoonPay has relationships to 250+ wallets - this is where lucrative on and off ramp is happening.
NicoJuicy
Under 5 million revenue / year for Moonpay. That's 20 k. / Wallet integration.

Let's not get carried away here, that's peanuts.

Even BitPay, that runs since 2011 only has 23 million revenue/year

ck_one
I doubt that revenue per wallet is a uniform distribution. At the end there will only be a few wallets left. If you sign them now you will get all their business. Phantom has already announced to use MoonPay. OpenSea, the biggest NFT marketplace, also uses MoonPay.
NicoJuicy
I'm not saying it's uniform, as always you only need a couple of integrations.

And the ones you missed out, you're probably never going to receive a payment from them either way.

ck_one
Thinking about it again, I think MoonPays biggest asset is their stored KYC data. Customers don't want to go through KYC twice so if they have several options they will go with MoonPay again. I think KYC will play a big part in crypto soon.
NicoJuicy
That's just weird. There is no proven method to monetize solely transaction data.

Moonpay doesn't know anything out of the ordinary about their customers. BitPay would have a better advantage then Moonpay ( 10 years of data and a higher volume)

It's only good for detecting fraud, even if they would have lots of data ( which they don't seem to have)

ck_one
I guess they will monetise their KYC data. Eventually you will need KYC data to accept a payment from a customer. The customer obviously doesn't want to enter it again and again. So some company will build a KYC layer - this might be MoonPay.
NicoJuicy
You are forgetting the entire premise of crypto. Anonymous payments with only a wallet id.

I'd suppose many people don't want to share their info and the most bought item is gift cards.

buchanaf
This plus the fact that accepting crypto payments is relatively trivial compared to processing and handling the VAT and sales tax for a billion jurisdictions that also happen to change all the time.
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ck_one
I think the key part will be KYC instead of VAT and sales tax. I am pretty sure there are already APIs to get VAT for every jurisdiction.
ArtWomb
Wow, Congrats to MoonPay!

I was curious about their fee structure, and after digging was able to find the following chart:

https://support.moonpay.com/hc/en-gb/articles/360011930117-W...

Is the API public? Looking for a list of MoonPay's webhook endpoints & events a la Stripe...

ck_one
I think you will get access to the documentation after you signed up as an enterprise customer. Maybe when you look at older versions with the wayback machine you find a public documentation.
altdataseller
Why would the regular Joe use MoonPay to pay for stuff online? Why not the regular way?
ck_one
Stripe is the preferred way if you want to pay by CC no doubt. But at some point in the future the regular Joe might want to pay with his crypto wallet. Then MoonPay might be the preferred way.
atmosx
Regular Joe will use a crypto wallet managed by the US gov and won’t need a payments processor or a bank. All transactions will be managed centrally. Exactly the opposite of what Satoshi foresaw :o)

Source: https://www.economist.com/leaders/2021/05/08/the-digital-cur...

ck_one
Hm I doubt that developers on Ethereum will switch to such a system. At the end developer/product adoption will decide how the future will look like.
trompetenaccoun
Ideals can be compromised though. I'm increasingly pessimistic about cryptocurrencies bringing us positive change. The digital ledger, which was intended as a tool for democratization, can also be used to monitor and oppress. Which is just the kind of thing those in power like to do.
atmosx
Currencies are not adopted. Currencies are enforced. All the gov has to do is “accept taxes in eUSD with 5% cut compared to alternatives” for 10 years and the game is over. China banned eCoins overnight, it’s as simple as that, for better or worst.
tofukid
Neither.

The purpose of cryptocurrency is peer-to-peer transactions. No central bank, no retail banks, no payment processors, no KYC, no gatekeeping.

A few days ago there was a thread about Stripe locking a business’ account for no reason, with no support, grinding their entire business to a halt. That’s not the future of cryptocurrency I want.

ck_one
I doubt governments will allow payments without KYC. I think even for citizens that's a bad trade off. I feel much safer if I know whom I am doing business with.
tofukid
Sure, but then there’s no point to a peer-to-peer decentralized cryptocurrency.

Cryptocurrency is a peer-to-peer decentralized network. The government can’t stop me from sending or receiving cryptocurrency.