Show HN: Peanut – A Modern Money App
peanut.me(they are only claimable once, so please be courteous and don't claim all, leave some for other users!)
1. https://peanut.me/claim?c=42161&v=v4.3&i=5778#p=ms74xIbdGVSK...
2. https://peanut.me/claim?c=42161&v=v4.3&i=5779#p=G7V82WybXthy...
3. https://peanut.me/claim?c=42161&v=v4.3&i=5780#p=Rgpymby5wBbO...
4. https://peanut.me/claim?c=42161&v=v4.3&i=5781#p=6F5nKWjx2Kf6...
5. https://peanut.me/claim?c=42161&v=v4.3&i=5782#p=DtdJ0y2Ufayu...
You can also try the dev build at https://staging.peanut.me but it's quite unstable atm
In practice, most currencies are actually liquid against the American dollar; and maybe a few other major coins. This is mostly a technical issue, since liquidity is fragmented and it is just easier to trade against what you know everyone else has: the all-dominant US Dollar [1].
Now, enough theory, how do we do it at Peanut?
Currently, all user balances at Peanut are dollarized; that means users hold USD stablecoins. This is a deliberate simplification; in the future, we plan to roll out other stablecoin support (especially important for Europeans. The rest of the world is pretty happy with holding USD).
When we have to do an exchange to a local currency, like Argentinian Pesos, we work with a local exchange provider. They are able to give us the best exchange rate, because we go directly from a USD-like stablecoin (USDC or USDT usually), to their currency.
For them, USDC & USDT are functionally equivalent to hard cash, and they price it accordingly. They also get it IMMEDIATELY; they don't have to wait multiple days until settlement and until we wire them the funds from some American or European Bank. This is much better for us than for other fintechs like Revolut or Wise; they have to have their own liquidity (and all the infra, compliance, and legal that that entails!)
In the future, I expect our exchange rates to get even better. As foreign exchange continues to grow ON chain, liquidity on chain will increase; until it is the largest (and thus CHEAPEST) exchange in the world.
[1] Note: with the slow end of Pax Americana under the current US regime, the adoption of US Dollar has actually been falling somewhat; replaced by sovereign nations and funds actually holding more gold instead of usd . That's also why we've seen gold at all time highs
maybe my question wasn't clearly written, sorry
I meant how are you planning to handle different exchange operation types like on this example situation:
when you send or receive international transfers in Brazil and you exchange it for BRL you need to declare what is the nature of the exchange operation you are doing
if you are receiving for services that you provided, if it's a transfer from an account you own, if it's a donation, the list goes on
this is important because of the different treatment each of them receive on compliance, risk and even fees
I think there's two angles here: personal accounting for the user, and compliance for us as a company.
From a user perspective, it's your own responsibility to classify your transactions when you do your accounting, wether you're an individual or a business. So if you get paid via Peanut, you need to say if it was a donation, friend payment, income, etc.
From our own perspective on compliance, risk and fees, it depends a lot on what provider we're working with and in what jurisdiction the operate on. Sorry if that's not a satisfying answer ("it depends"); happy to go into more detail if you have a specific example in mind
US and EU banking rails are both fully supported!
Apologies!
I'm not quite sure I understand the logic of mentioning future merchant monetization plans on the landing page?
Could be as simple as "But how do you make money then" in the FAQ.
Currently merchants get kind of shafted by VISA/Mastercard. Not only do they have to wait until they get their funds (sometimes even up to two weeks!), which is horrible for a business where cash flow is important, margins low and float very tight; they also pay huge fees on top!
Depending on geo, these fees can go from 1-3% (total) to >6-8% in geos like Argentina and Brazil (and even worse in some other places). That's insane.
Whilst stablecoin & blockchain adoption is not fundamentally impossible for Visa/MC (see this post for more info https://x.com/uwwgo/status/1973038511897923848), it is still a very long way off, and we expect to be very competitive, especially with sovereign nations pushing their own alternatives that we interoperate with (PIX, Mercadopago, DUITNOW, MB WAY etc)