Intern @Route2FI | Cooking @cr3dentials | Crypto payments tester. Stress-testing neobanks & cards so you don’t have to.
Joined July 2023
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Most people in the comment section will just share their referral links.
Here’s categories of different crypto cards/neobanks based on what you actually want to do with them:
• If you want access to DeFi + yield & more: @avici & @useTria
• Best customer support + access to yield: @plasma & @ether_fi
• If you’re in the EU: @gnosispay
• Best card options in APAC & Africa: @Redotpay
• If you want to send money abroad, get USD accounts, off-ramp, etc: @jup_mobile global & @hyperbeat
• Agentic payments: @cypher
• If you want a privacy card: @payy_link (KYC) & @offgridcash (non-KYC, still in beta)
• If you want to gamble on maybe having your transaction paid for: @itstuyo
What did I miss?
Octopus retweeted
- Cross-venue basis yields with no pool risk
- Self-custodial
- OG team, managed billions
- Tokenized equities narrative
- Listed everywhere, incl. Binance, Coinbase, Upbit ++
- 94% circ
- Token value accrual
- 6 major partnership discussions on the move
I am long $REZ.
Octopus retweeted
after doing research on google wallet, i think i’ll continue using apple wallet in peace due to privacy concerns.
google wallet gives you the convenience of adding your cards at the expense of your data.
there are clearly differences in terms of architecture, privacy, and how they handle your information.
here’s what i’ve learnt so far:
apple wallet keeps your payment activity private from apple itself, while google wallet connects your information to your google account and other services.
i wouldn’t even care as much if it were just my personal google account sharing this information.
google wallet goes as far as collecting and retaining your payment records, while apple pay makes sure it doesn’t keep identifiable records of your purchases.
it’s even funny that they can use your purchase history to sell ads to you, while apple doesn’t.
apple pay focuses more on your privacy, while google focuses more on integrating you into its other services without caring as much about your privacy.
for that reason, i’ll pass on this tbh. it’s scary to hear all this.
sorry to say this, but i’m giga bearish. i don’t think it can really work out in the long term.
the notion of democratizing everything works so well for memecoins because they’re gambling tools.
it’s a much harder thing to replicate when you’re dealing with trust, taking people’s deposits, etc.
the last time they tried to do something similar with neobanks, i disagreed 100% because crypto neobanks are trust tools.
you can’t just build a vibecoded neobank and expect me to deposit my money.
just like you can’t expect me to swap an established stablecoin like usdt or usdc for your own vibecoded stablecoin.
for what reason? yield? name? or what? it just doesn’t make sense.
even projects with large liquidity and distribution are struggling to gain supply for their stablecoins.
a clear example is phantom and jupiter, despite their huge distribution and the many updates to integrate their stablecoins into their ecosystems.
their growth has been very inconsistent and has stalled.
both are down from their all-time highs:
jupusd: -17% from the peak
cash: supply has been ranging around 3% below its peak.
now imagine the same situation with a project that doesn’t even have an established user base, liquidity, or distribution.
it looks even bleaker, obviously.
and even projects trying to join the race by issuing their own stablecoins to capture that 3%-4% yield should prepare to lose too.
despite stablecoin transactions growing year over year, supply has stalled, growing by less than 2%, while a gazillion new stablecoins are launching every day.
all these new stablecoins are just getting their supply from established stablecoins like usdt and usdc, which people obviously rotate back into once the yield, airdrops, or whatever incentives they promised are gone.
the chart is screaming that no one needs your stablecoin anymore. just find another business model.
this is just the fact tbh.
Octopus retweeted
Dear algorithm,
Show this post to everyone who:
→ Earns through Uber, YouTube, OnlyFans, Shopify, or other online platforms
→ Is tired of being denied credit because they don’t have a traditional job
→ Wants their income and financial history to count when applying for loans
→ Believes access to credit shouldn’t depend on where you work
They need Cr3dentials.
after doing research on google wallet, i think i’ll continue using apple wallet in peace due to privacy concerns.
google wallet gives you the convenience of adding your cards at the expense of your data.
there are clearly differences in terms of architecture, privacy, and how they handle your information.
here’s what i’ve learnt so far:
apple wallet keeps your payment activity private from apple itself, while google wallet connects your information to your google account and other services.
i wouldn’t even care as much if it were just my personal google account sharing this information.
google wallet goes as far as collecting and retaining your payment records, while apple pay makes sure it doesn’t keep identifiable records of your purchases.
it’s even funny that they can use your purchase history to sell ads to you, while apple doesn’t.
apple pay focuses more on your privacy, while google focuses more on integrating you into its other services without caring as much about your privacy.
for that reason, i’ll pass on this tbh. it’s scary to hear all this.
Octopus retweeted
Before the invention of credit scores, credit applications could take more than a month.
They needed to constantly pass through humans who could be vulnerable and inconsistent, as different individuals judged applicants based on their own experiences.
Credit scores changed the game by giving every borrower a universal number that defines their creditworthiness.
With the advancement of the internet, we’ve had many verification layers that make things easier for lenders to access borrowers’ information without needing to verify everything manually.
In this article, we talk about these verification layers, e.g. @tryPortola, @cred_protocol, @Plaid, etc.
All these verification layers have segments they’re tailored for, but where we @Cr3dentials position ourselves is different.
We tend to go deeper into the borrower’s daily life: what they do every day, how consistently they get paid, any upcoming payments, how long they’ve been freelancing, how often they get paid, etc.
We don’t just focus on credit. We focus on the source of the money they’ll use to pay back the loan in the first place.
We try to incorporate as much data as we can get. We integrate credit bureau data to access people’s outstanding debts and neobank user data to understand more about the people we’re underwriting, among other data sources.
We also handle repayment, recourse, and even enforcement, becoming a full-stack credit underwriting engine.
Check out our latest article for more on this:
Octopus retweeted
the project i was talking about is @peanut, but i didn’t want to mention it because of the bad pr.
what really happened is that my passkey was automatically connected to my email.
but due to the fact that i have multiple gmail accounts, i didn’t know that my email had already switched to another one.
because of that, my passkey wasn’t saved to the new email, so it was nowhere to be found.
when i switched back to the one i connected it to, i finally got access to my account.
been using the card a lot lately tbh. feels so goood getting back to it finally.
and obviously, i’m at fault. i really love the fact that i didn’t mention any brand, etc.
so if you’re going through the same thing, this might just be you being the issue btw 😭
passkeys are good but they could be the reason why many consumer app users lose their accounts forever.
a few weeks ago, i was battle-testing a product where the only way to log in was through a passkey.
the full version launched the following week, but when i tried to use my passkey, it was nowhere to be found on my phone.
i contacted support about this, and all they could tell me was that they couldn’t help because they didn’t store the information.
my account was gone forever. the architecture behind the passkey was awful.
you lose access to your passkey, and it’s bye-bye to your account.
so what’s the essence?
most teams just adopt passkeys because that’s what everyone is using, but they fail to protect users:
• single authenticator: the passkey is bound to only one phone.
like what happened to me: lose the phone → locked out.
in my case, i didn’t lose access to my phone, but i don’t know why the passkey was nowhere to be found on it.
passkeys should support access across multiple devices, through QR code authentication with another phone, etc.
• weak recovery path: once you lose access to the passkey, you’re locked out. the product i was beta-testing didn’t have any way for me to recover my account.
saying they couldn’t do it because of decentralization really sounds awkward for a product that wants to reach mass adoption.
it would’ve been better if users could recover their passkeys directly through email.
overall, projects shouldn’t adopt passkeys just because everyone else is doing the same.
your users come first in everything.
passkeys should be adopted in a way that allows users to use and recover them as simply as possible.
passkey gone, account gone isn’t the kind of adoption we all pray for.
hope neobank founders pay attention to this carefully.
what’s the essence of kyc nowadays?
“kyc is for your protection.”
ok, i hear you bro.
can you show me exactly how giving out my passport, scanning my face, and sharing my home address protects me?
because at the end of the day, if my data gets leaked, i’m going to be the one in trouble, or end up like the case below.
so how does this protect me anyway?
make it make sense.
If you ever used KYC you can go to jail now.
This girl is facing 6 years in jail because criminals bought her KYC data on darknet, opened accounts with it, and used it for crime.
She just passed a KYC for a regular platform and the provider leaked all the info of all users. it's now on darknet.
There's a big chance your data has been leaked somewhere sometime, sold on darkweb for dirt cheap. So be carful doing KYC anywhere, from now on.
current KYC and aml practices are CANCER that don't prevent the actual money launderers (government adjacent), but just hurt regular people
the project i was talking about is @peanut, but i didn’t want to mention it because of the bad pr.
what really happened is that my passkey was automatically connected to my email.
but due to the fact that i have multiple gmail accounts, i didn’t know that my email had already switched to another one.
because of that, my passkey wasn’t saved to the new email, so it was nowhere to be found.
when i switched back to the one i connected it to, i finally got access to my account.
been using the card a lot lately tbh. feels so goood getting back to it finally.
and obviously, i’m at fault. i really love the fact that i didn’t mention any brand, etc.
so if you’re going through the same thing, this might just be you being the issue btw 😭
passkeys are good but they could be the reason why many consumer app users lose their accounts forever.
a few weeks ago, i was battle-testing a product where the only way to log in was through a passkey.
the full version launched the following week, but when i tried to use my passkey, it was nowhere to be found on my phone.
i contacted support about this, and all they could tell me was that they couldn’t help because they didn’t store the information.
my account was gone forever. the architecture behind the passkey was awful.
you lose access to your passkey, and it’s bye-bye to your account.
so what’s the essence?
most teams just adopt passkeys because that’s what everyone is using, but they fail to protect users:
• single authenticator: the passkey is bound to only one phone.
like what happened to me: lose the phone → locked out.
in my case, i didn’t lose access to my phone, but i don’t know why the passkey was nowhere to be found on it.
passkeys should support access across multiple devices, through QR code authentication with another phone, etc.
• weak recovery path: once you lose access to the passkey, you’re locked out. the product i was beta-testing didn’t have any way for me to recover my account.
saying they couldn’t do it because of decentralization really sounds awkward for a product that wants to reach mass adoption.
it would’ve been better if users could recover their passkeys directly through email.
overall, projects shouldn’t adopt passkeys just because everyone else is doing the same.
your users come first in everything.
passkeys should be adopted in a way that allows users to use and recover them as simply as possible.
passkey gone, account gone isn’t the kind of adoption we all pray for.
hope neobank founders pay attention to this carefully.
recently had a conversation with my trader friend yesterday who has been consistently using a crypto card.
one of the main reasons he loves using a crypto card is the convenience of sending his gains to the card instead of round-tripping.
he parks some of it in the earn feature, where he can confidently earn 3%-5%, depending on the apy.
he also gets to spend the money directly irl on groceries, clothes, travel, etc.
when the bull run is over, he won’t have the regret of not taking profit, as he’s conveniently taken some money off the table along the way and spent it on a good quality of life.
so no matter what happens, he gets to enjoy the fruits of his labour without waiting for the money to land in his bank account for days.
also, with the outrageous charges on crypto-to-fiat conversions, he can just spend it directly.
that’s exactly what makes crypto cards make sense tbh.
Octopus retweeted
most frequent question i get every time i post about @cr3dentials:
“how are you different from other verification layers for credit?”
we are aware of the existence of other verification layers, and everybody is working to grow the pie together.
but some of our biggest differentiators are:
• we use zktls, which means lenders can only access specific information, not all sensitive data.
• we don’t just provide data for users, but also credit facilities for them to lend out.
• we handle data, recourse, repayment, and enforcement, making it a full-stack credit engine.
we are also exploring different mechanisms like vaults to build a crypto-native credit engine, not just for tradfi.
this and more are discussed in our latest articles:
most frequent question i get every time i post about @cr3dentials:
“how are you different from other verification layers for credit?”
we are aware of the existence of other verification layers, and everybody is working to grow the pie together.
but some of our biggest differentiators are:
• we use zktls, which means lenders can only access specific information, not all sensitive data.
• we don’t just provide data for users, but also credit facilities for them to lend out.
• we handle data, recourse, repayment, and enforcement, making it a full-stack credit engine.
we are also exploring different mechanisms like vaults to build a crypto-native credit engine, not just for tradfi.
this and more are discussed in our latest articles:
Octopus retweeted
switching from apple pay to google pay is probably one of the best decisions i’ve made so far.
now i don’t have to deal with all the complexities of apple wallet slowly adding my card to it.
any project that wants to see their logo here?
switching from apple pay to google pay is probably one of the best decisions i’ve made so far.
now i don’t have to deal with all the complexities of apple wallet slowly adding my card to it.
any project that wants to see their logo here?
Octopus retweeted
this is going to be a floodgate of crypto neobanks offering unsecured lending to their users.
this year alone, we’ve had many shutdowns and pivots, not because the card business isn’t booming or users aren’t coming in.
but because the business is unsustainable. they need to constantly incentivize users, and those users leave immediately when they stop getting incentivized.
With this, they finally went from the generic:
earn → spend → save
to:
earn → spend → save → credit
unlike the card business, where you’d need to constantly spend money on marketing and cashback to eventually earn interchange fees that are often less than 1%…
the money spent on cashback by crypto neobanks is actually positive for users, but it’s a net negative for the projects. the more money they burn to acquire users, the less they have left to spend.
the only thing you need with credit is to keep improving your underwriting and have customers pay you back.
you’ll keep getting more money in than you spend out as a project.
also, crypto neobanks nowadays have retention problems. offering credit can definitely help solve that problem.
customers who borrow money from an app tend to open it more often, and it gets even stronger when they start using it for most of their transactions to build a credit profile for future loans.
it turns one-time users into highly engaged customers.
but one of the reasons why projects don’t want to offer credit is that they’d have to start building the underwriting infrastructure from the ground up, so they could use that time on other product iteration.
that’s where @cr3dentials comes in. we handle everything for you in the background: the data, recourse, repayment, and even enforcement.
our system is live, and almost 5k verifications have passed through it since launch.
we’ve just had the first cohort of neobanks join our credit facility, where they can get up to $200k to lend to their customers.
with plans to extend it as time goes on, some of the top neobanks that joined the program include pulsar money, uglycash, littio, among others.
all you need to do is bring your users if you want to introduce credit to them. we handle all the heavy lifting you need to worry about.
credit is the last moat for neobanks. everything else can easily be replicated, subsidized, etc., but the users you lend to are the ones who stay with you.
happy to chat more if you’ve any questions. gn
Today, I’m extremely excited to announce @eldoradoio's first stablecoin-powered credit product, in partnership with @talamobile and powered by @tempo ! 🚀
Access to credit remains one of the biggest barriers to economic growth in Latin America. Millions of people are excluded from traditional lending simply because they lack the documentation, credit history, or collateral banks require.
We believe access to credit should be determined by your potential, not just your paperwork.
Starting in Bolivia, eligible El Dorado users will be able to open their wallets, access pre-qualified credit offers, and receive funds in seconds, directly in USDT.
Loans will be disbursed and repaid onchain through Tempo, with Tala providing the capital and taking on the credit risk.For us, this is about much more than launching another financial product.
Stablecoins shouldnt just make it easier to move money. They should unlock entirely new financial opportunities.
By combining El Dorados distribution with Talas lending infrastructure, were taking another step toward making financial services more accessible to millions of Latin Americans.
Our ambition is to build the financial infrastructure that accelerates economic growth across Latin America, and expanding access to credit is a fundamental part of that mission.
Special thanks to the rockstar team that made this partnership possible: @shivsiroya @0xskittles @Santiaestrada93 @andreujuanc @exk200 @teresagrandia @Crisaudy_ and many others
We're just getting started. 🌎
this is going to be a floodgate of crypto neobanks offering unsecured lending to their users.
this year alone, we’ve had many shutdowns and pivots, not because the card business isn’t booming or users aren’t coming in.
but because the business is unsustainable. they need to constantly incentivize users, and those users leave immediately when they stop getting incentivized.
With this, they finally went from the generic:
earn → spend → save
to:
earn → spend → save → credit
unlike the card business, where you’d need to constantly spend money on marketing and cashback to eventually earn interchange fees that are often less than 1%…
the money spent on cashback by crypto neobanks is actually positive for users, but it’s a net negative for the projects. the more money they burn to acquire users, the less they have left to spend.
the only thing you need with credit is to keep improving your underwriting and have customers pay you back.
you’ll keep getting more money in than you spend out as a project.
also, crypto neobanks nowadays have retention problems. offering credit can definitely help solve that problem.
customers who borrow money from an app tend to open it more often, and it gets even stronger when they start using it for most of their transactions to build a credit profile for future loans.
it turns one-time users into highly engaged customers.
but one of the reasons why projects don’t want to offer credit is that they’d have to start building the underwriting infrastructure from the ground up, so they could use that time on other product iteration.
that’s where @cr3dentials comes in. we handle everything for you in the background: the data, recourse, repayment, and even enforcement.
our system is live, and almost 5k verifications have passed through it since launch.
we’ve just had the first cohort of neobanks join our credit facility, where they can get up to $200k to lend to their customers.
with plans to extend it as time goes on, some of the top neobanks that joined the program include pulsar money, uglycash, littio, among others.
all you need to do is bring your users if you want to introduce credit to them. we handle all the heavy lifting you need to worry about.
credit is the last moat for neobanks. everything else can easily be replicated, subsidized, etc., but the users you lend to are the ones who stay with you.
happy to chat more if you’ve any questions. gn
Today, I’m extremely excited to announce @eldoradoio's first stablecoin-powered credit product, in partnership with @talamobile and powered by @tempo ! 🚀
Access to credit remains one of the biggest barriers to economic growth in Latin America. Millions of people are excluded from traditional lending simply because they lack the documentation, credit history, or collateral banks require.
We believe access to credit should be determined by your potential, not just your paperwork.
Starting in Bolivia, eligible El Dorado users will be able to open their wallets, access pre-qualified credit offers, and receive funds in seconds, directly in USDT.
Loans will be disbursed and repaid onchain through Tempo, with Tala providing the capital and taking on the credit risk.For us, this is about much more than launching another financial product.
Stablecoins shouldnt just make it easier to move money. They should unlock entirely new financial opportunities.
By combining El Dorados distribution with Talas lending infrastructure, were taking another step toward making financial services more accessible to millions of Latin Americans.
Our ambition is to build the financial infrastructure that accelerates economic growth across Latin America, and expanding access to credit is a fundamental part of that mission.
Special thanks to the rockstar team that made this partnership possible: @shivsiroya @0xskittles @Santiaestrada93 @andreujuanc @exk200 @teresagrandia @Crisaudy_ and many others
We're just getting started. 🌎