When an online merchant accepts #Paypal or credit card, is Paypal still in the loop if credit card is used? I ask because I #boycottPaypal, & wonder if I should also avoid using a CC at PP-accepting merchants.
@Talkless No chance I'll boycott fiat. There is a #WarOnCash (read: war on privacy). To fight that war on the side of privacy, I favor cash notes whenever possible & boycott cashless b&m shops. Cash notes have more privacy than the cryptocurrencies. Online payment is tricky. Cryptocurrency is best in that case, but hard to get & acceptance is low.
@resist1984 Yeah I too use cash where possible, but They can just stop printing cash, while stopping #bitcoin will be harder... It's digital cash, maintained by volunteers in decentralized way.
@Talkless Things will improve when cryptocurrency becomes more available. Kind of. It's a catch22 because visa is promoting cryptocurrency themselves because they believe it will help them eliminate cash.
@Talkless @resist1984 I'd do with #monero as it's fungible like cash.
@Talkless My #boycott on #Amazon, #walmart, & #paypal really narrows options to start with. So in the end my question still stands. Note that I also boycott #visa & #mastercard because they are members of the #BetterThanCashAlliance, and I boycott #AmEx b/c it's an #ALEC member. So short of cryptocurrency that leaves #discovercard.
@resist1984 (about narrowing options) Well, write to your local e-store and state your concern and ask them to consider accepting #btc. You can find sellers that use #Amazon as a front-end, and take business with them directly.
@Talkless i'm glad you mentioned bitrefill.com.. that seems to open up some options.
@resist1984 Check https://lightningnetworkstores.com/ and https://cryptwerk.com/ . There are probably more such aggregators in the wild.
@Talkless #lightningnetworkstores & #cryptwerk are also #CloudFlare sites, so they are useless to me.
@resist1984 These sites are aggregators, you have to look at the actual stores if they use #CloudFlare cancer. Though good idea, I should start writing to the vendors and ask them to get over with CF disease...
@Talkless You might want to reference this or parts thereof in the #CloudFlare fight: https://git.disroot.org/cyberMonk/liberethos_paradigm/src/branch/master/rap_sheets/cloudflare.md
@Talkless oh shit, no it doesn't. I just realized #bitrefill is a #CloudFlare site. I boycott CF, which tends to put many cryptocurrency options out of reach. Most exchangers use CF.
@Talkless @resist1984 Cryptocurrencies are currently an environmental disaster and not as private as many people thing (e.g. Bitcoin keeps all transaction records public and searchable, and buying Bitcoin anonymously is difficult).
I'm putting my hopes in GNU Taler (https://taler.net/en/), which gives true anonymity to payers, does not require proof of work, and cannot be turned into a speculation game. If I had to give up cash for one electronic alternative, it would be this one.
@resist1984 so which card stays in the loop removing visa and MasterCard? 🤔
@resist1984 I can't tell you for sure but I sure as heck wouldn't be surprised 😕
@resist1984 If you use PayPal to select and use an on-file card, PayPal does get some information about the transaction, as they are the first-layer payment processor. I'm not sure #boycottPaypal is the stance to take, though. Seems sort of like it misses the bigger picture.
@ThreeBadgersInATrenchcoat I'm not flexible on the #Paypal boycott. PP took money from me, and they share data with 600 companies (https://git.disroot.org/cyberMonk/liberethos_paradigm/src/branch/master/rap_sheets/paypal.md). I recently wanted to buy a particular ebike motor, and the sole vendor only accepts Paypal. I walked. I decided to stay with a push bike because I won't go near Paypal.
@resist1984 I'm well aware of the problems with PayPal, but just like in your boycott, you've missed the point of my post. My point was, these practices are undergone by almost every payment processor on the planet, and boycotting PayPal or whatever other companies won't hurt their bottom line. And equally misses the larger picture of the issues in sale and trading of sensitive user data in the payment industry. PayPal isn't where you should expend your energy for a boycott.
Also, you trying to backup that you truly do boycott PayPal with an unverifiable claim about not buying from a vendor, still does little to substantiate your point or stance.
@ThreeBadgersInATrenchcoat that's like saying don't vote in elections because a vote carries so little power on it's own. I'm well aware that my Paypal boycott will not bring down PP. Yet it still brings 3 certain benefits: 1) I remove myself from being part of the problem 2) My sensitive data isn't shared with 600 companies 3) PP will not steal my money again
@resist1984 Well, if you going that far, maybe consider #boycottFiat? Some stores use payment processors like CoinGate, CoinPayments, OpenNode, Globee and others, and they do support payments via #LightningNetwork, which gives very private #bitcoin payments. For example, you can go to bitrefill.com, refill sim card (while browsing via #Tor btw), and use that prepaid card to pay for some small "fiat-sms" payments where applicable. Also, use gift cards, or just pay directly to e-store in BTC.