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You simply don't know how good PlebQR is. I've been basically living on Bitcoin for the past couple of weeks and purchasing food, drinks, clothes, tickets with the sats I earn by shitposting on Nostr. PlebQR is an unstoppable peer-to-peer Bitcoin to fiat on and off-ramp. Every Bitcoiner deserves to have this. Read on and maybe it'll inspire you to create something similar for your region too. In Thailand, like in many other places in the world, especially in Asia, the most common digital payment methods aren't credit cards, they're QR codes. All sorts of QR codes from many different fiat payment providers. Shitty ones, good ones, it doesn't matter. As long as it's a QR code, it'll work for us. Here's where PlebQR comes in. PlebQR is what I would call a Let-me-pay-for-you app. It matches you, the person who wants to pay for a drink with Bitcoin, with a random stranger on the internet who wants your Bitcoin and pay your fiat QR bill in return! The UX is straightforward: You scan the QR code at the store, pay a Lightning invoice, and wait for the payment. No sign up needed and with incredible privacy. It works best when you're not in a hurry and when there isn't a line of people waiting behind you. Those cases are surprisingly common, think restaurant bill, or at the flea market. Right now, it usually takes a minute or two for the payment to clear but it'll get faster as more people use it. The best part though isn't that it just enables Bitcoin payments for basically everything and everywhere. It's that it represents a different, more natural form of decentralized trading that can't be stopped, and that isn't about buying and selling Bitcoin, but about spending it. I wish you could try it out some time. Pure magic Internet money ✨ image

Replies (61)

↩ replying to Max
I was surprised to learn about BLIK in Poland. So I was chatting with our robot friends to learn if there are similar p2p systems in outher EU countries. If we could replicate what Poles did, this would be HUGE. Here's a full list: | Country | Payment system | |---|---| | Austria | Express-Transfer (bank instant services), MeinElba (bank apps) | | Belgium | Bancontact Mobile, Payconiq by Bancontact | | Bulgaria | Local bank mobile apps (instant), ePay (card services) | | Croatia | m-Transfer (bank apps) | | Cyprus | Local bank mobile apps (instant transfers) | | Czech Republic | Instant bank transfers via bank apps | | Denmark | MobilePay | | Estonia | Bank apps / Mobile-ID instant transfers | | Finland | Siirto (now integrated into bank apps) | | France | Paylib, Lydia (fintech P2P), bank app instant transfers | | Germany | giropay, Kwitt (Sparkassen), SEPA Instant via banks | | Greece | Bank mobile apps (instant), Viva Wallet P2P | | Hungary | Bank app instant transfers, fintech apps | | Iceland | Bank app instant transfers | | Ireland | Bank app instant transfers, Revolut and fintechs | | Italy | Bancomat Pay, Satispay, MyBank, bank app instant transfers | | Latvia | Bank app instant transfers | | Lithuania | Paysera, bank app instant transfers | | Luxembourg | Bank app instant transfers | | Malta | Bank app instant transfers, fintech apps | | Netherlands | iDEAL (e‑commerce), Tikkie (ABN AMRO P2P) | | Norway | Vipps | | Poland | BLIK | | Portugal | MB WAY | | Romania | Bank app instant transfers, fintechs (e.g., Revolut) | | Slovenia | FLIK | | Slovakia | Bank app instant transfers (e.g., Tatra banka) | | Spain | Bizum | | Sweden | Swish | | Switzerland | TWINT | | United Kingdom | Faster Payments (bank-backed), bank app P2P (Monzo, Revolut) | "Notes: This list emphasizes nationally used P2P/payment schemes or widely adopted bank-backed instant transfer services in European countries; coverage and features vary (QR, phone-number transfers, one-time codes, ATM withdrawal)."
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@BitBlik was created exactly to achieve the same "basically living on Bitcoin" dream here in Poland. Besides the p2p, privacy and unstop-ability aspect of it - which is cypherpunk AF - it also gives people wanting to live on Bitcoin an important advantage of being able to exchange your bitcoin for tangible things that you can feel you actually "own" and now in your hand like groceries, meal at a restaurant that you just consumed, or even cash from an ATM. Unlike when using exchanges (even decentralized non-kyc like robosats, hodlhodl and others), you still mostly need to receive the fiat in some sort of bank account or fintech app thingy, which opens the possibility of being scammed by people asking platforms like revolut/wise for charge back. In such cases usually those platforms require you to prove that the fiat origin was for a legal trade of some sort, you might have difficulties in proving that the anonymous trade of your bitcoin is in fact your identity, since they operate in a KYC, centralized, proof-of-identity world. This basically means that you sent your bitcoin but you now hold "fiat" which is not in your actual possession, and you need someone's permission to use/spend it. Spending your bitcoin in things or services that you already have consumed or hold in your hand is such a powerful feeling, you rather cannot be rug pulled in this way, and with that comes a feeling of freedom and sovereignty. Another nice aspect of it is that now you have a much better answer when your normie friends come at you with the argument against bitcoin: "But you cannot spend it practically anywhere". Here's a quick summary of the amount of places in Poland you can now spend your Bitcoin anonymously/privately and non-KYC, so shut the fuck up! image Now the issue is not finding places where you can spend your bitcoin, but rather: is there enough people wanting to live in a Bitcoin Standard and wanting to spend their bitcoin? Demand for non-KYC bitcoin is here and will only probably increase in near-term because of more regulation and control. @BitBlik fills this demand, but we need more people wanting to actually spend their bitcoin and creating more offers in tools like @PlebQR, @BitBlik and others. Remember: If you don't want to spend your bitcoin, you still have too much fiat. #bitcoin #everyday #money
This is absolutely mind-blowing Living on Bitcoin in the real world is the dream we’ve all been waiting for, and your experience with PlebQR makes it feel so achievable. It’s inspiring to see how decentralization is literally putting food on the table and clothes on your back. Your post isn't just a review it's a glimpse into the future of financial freedom. Thank you for sharing this 'Pure Magic'! I’m learning so much from your journey. Would love to see more of these insights from you. Stay legendary!
This seems like a great idea and a perfect fit for bitcoin. It reminds me of early demonstrations of remote payments by sharing a bitcoin "invoice" qr code with a willing payer via livestream or just text. I think Roger Ver demoed that use case back in the early days. Since this 33me to involve payment via credit or debit card, I'm curious about how charge-backs are dealt with. I think in-person transactions generally are "insured" so to speak by the payer being present and maybe even on camera. It seems like the remote payer could potentially game a system like this because they are anonymous, off camera, and could just accept the bitcoin and then do a charge-back at some point afterwards. Maybe the protection is that their credit/debit card company would flag this sort of activity if it happened too frequently?
Enseñar a la población a utilizar QR para realizar transacciones facilita la entrada de nuevas plataformas de pago que para los usuarios puede suponer no necesitar más infraestructura que la pantalla de su móvil o una hoja de papel. Debemos reforzar la enseñanza de este gesto. View quoted note →
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took a second for me to grok how this works. anyone can make a traditional qr code payment if they have a picture of it. plebqr is a marketplace where you pay someone (in bitcoin) to pay (in fiat) a qr code that you post. this creates an informal on-ramp / off-ramp: you've exchanged bitcoin for fiat, and someone else has exchanged fiat for bitcoin :chef-kiss: View quoted note →
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Thanks for pointing this out. I can confirm it works well. Fast too: 1 or 2 minutes (but not at 0200). haha. I will be using this a lot since kasikorn bank told us their mobile banking app will require me to buy a new phone in a few days time. :(
This is pretty cool. However, clearly, the merchants must be paying some service to process the receiving of funds via these QR codes. Call me crazy, but in a region that doesn't already have a similarly ubiquitous QR code system, if you're going to try to convince a bunch of merchants there to start using QRs, why not just go straight to lightning QRs and allow them to eliminate the middle-men fees altogether?... In the case a merchant still insisted on being paid in fiat (or just didn't want to go through the trouble of managing their own lightning node), THEN they could choose to pay a middle-man to make that happen... e.g. what Square already offers.