neat technical sidenote: to stay non-custodial, the "key" parameter in these links is after a # hash. This ensures servers don't actually see this link-secret and steal the funds!
Let me know when Brazil + Pix is supported. The feature I have not seen in any of these websites that transfer money between countries is the ability to schedule reoccurring payments. I send money to my family monthly, and it would be nice if I didn't have to do the same exact process each time.
The way we intend to make money is off of merchants in the future. -> Is this on the website? Couldn't see it anywhere and that makes it a big nono for me
No, the landing page communicates customer fees (which are 0 for peanut to peanut flows and pass through for banking flows). We're very transparent with any FX or fees users experience.
I'm not quite sure I understand the logic of mentioning future merchant monetization plans on the landing page?
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)
Well, as a potential end customer, I want to know why I can trust you. You product is free, and you're handling my money. You telling me your revenue model is through merchants gives me the confidence you're not gonna pull me a weird one.
Could be as simple as "But how do you make money then" in the FAQ.
Doesn't seem to work in Firefox on Linux when I follow the TRY NOW! link and get sent to /setup. Ironically it asks me to copy the link and open it in my browser.
Unfortunately Firefox rarely has passkey support; so our whole auth system sadly doesn't work on that browser. In the future we'll add multiple auth methods. But for now you can switch to Brave, Chrome or most other Chromium browsers
hey kkonrad here, biz cofounder at peanut. really cool to start seeing users on this. esp proud of this being open source and a PWA despite many having advised against this.
That's an excellent question and has a lot of nuance to it. In principle there's ~200 countries in the world, and most of them have their own currency, which leads do 200^200 = 40_000 exchange rates in the world. More even; most currencies have wildly different exchange depending on what exchange you are actually using and how much liquidity that exchange has.
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
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
ah, it seems i completely misunderstood your question.
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
Just to show how easy it is to send/receive money with Peanut, here's a few links with $2 each.
(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...
neat technical sidenote: to stay non-custodial, the "key" parameter in these links is after a # hash. This ensures servers don't actually see this link-secret and steal the funds!
Let me know when Brazil + Pix is supported. The feature I have not seen in any of these websites that transfer money between countries is the ability to schedule reoccurring payments. I send money to my family monthly, and it would be nice if I didn't have to do the same exact process each time.
We're literally adding it this week! Give me your email or some place to reach you, i'll notify you
You can also try the dev build at https://staging.peanut.me but it's quite unstable atm
The way we intend to make money is off of merchants in the future. -> Is this on the website? Couldn't see it anywhere and that makes it a big nono for me
No, the landing page communicates customer fees (which are 0 for peanut to peanut flows and pass through for banking flows). We're very transparent with any FX or fees users experience.
I'm not quite sure I understand the logic of mentioning future merchant monetization plans on the landing page?
Also, to expand on this a bit more:
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)
Well, as a potential end customer, I want to know why I can trust you. You product is free, and you're handling my money. You telling me your revenue model is through merchants gives me the confidence you're not gonna pull me a weird one.
Could be as simple as "But how do you make money then" in the FAQ.
hmmm that's a very fair point on the FAQ! Will add it
Doesn't seem to work in Firefox on Linux when I follow the TRY NOW! link and get sent to /setup. Ironically it asks me to copy the link and open it in my browser.
Unfortunately Firefox rarely has passkey support; so our whole auth system sadly doesn't work on that browser. In the future we'll add multiple auth methods. But for now you can switch to Brave, Chrome or most other Chromium browsers
Apologies!
hey kkonrad here, biz cofounder at peanut. really cool to start seeing users on this. esp proud of this being open source and a PWA despite many having advised against this.
I actually really like the website. Do you support US also, or just EU (Portugal?)? Thanks!
Thanks! Do you like the flashy design, or the actual UX of the app?
US and EU banking rails are both fully supported!
how do you handle (or plan to handle) exchange operation types?
That's an excellent question and has a lot of nuance to it. In principle there's ~200 countries in the world, and most of them have their own currency, which leads do 200^200 = 40_000 exchange rates in the world. More even; most currencies have wildly different exchange depending on what exchange you are actually using and how much liquidity that exchange has.
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
thanks for the answer
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
ah, it seems i completely misunderstood your question.
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