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Comment by rms | Hacker News Reader

Pessimistically, they won't.

Optimistically, they solve consumer micropayments by allowing the unbanked to send and store money via WhatsApp.

Ok, that makes a lot of sense for the unbanked. I personally don’t know many people who are unbanked but maybe that number will grow in the future? I’m just trying to think about explaining this to some friends and why they should do this. Totally anonymous/private transactions between parties not having to use a bank?

From what I understand, the unbanked are really more of a thing in the developing world. The same crowd that'd be receiving micro loans were they looking to start small business in say rural Myanmar

Actually, I believe about 7-8% of the US is also unbanked. But that might be a specific to US (compared to other Western nations).

I lost a bank account last year and was unbanked for a little while. I really hate my customer service interactions with banks and would be quite happy if I could unbank myself.

Life pro tip:

If your Charles Schwab broker emails and says that they're wondering why your retirement savings are nothing but medical marijuana penny stocks and if you'd like to come in to talk about healthy portfolio management strategies, you should go into the local office and not ignore that email.

Most people who use whatsapp live in the third world. Almost everyone uses it in Guatemala, and most people also don't have a bank there.

The bulk of those in Uganda are unbanked. Everyone here uses WhatsApp. Something like this would be a great way for me to pay contractors and domestic staff who right now only take cash.

If they're unbanked how are they getting the money on there in the first place?

The world wide web my dude

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