Two of the world’s largest payment processors are teaming up for p2p payments. VISA and MoneyGram partnered on VISA Direct, a peer-to-peer money transfer option for US customers to send money domestically via the MoneyGram app.
MoneyGram Chairman and CEO Alex Holmes noted how the company’ partnership with VISA will provide its customers an even better digital payments experience:
“We strive to create the best possible experience for sending and receiving money, and this new product offering empowers our customers by giving them yet another way to send money to friends and family. And in partnering with Visa, the world’s leader in digital payments, we’re providing our customers with a dependable option that they know and trust.”
This announcement comes on the heels of another partnership between MoneyGram and Canada Post to offer digital payment services that can be completed at select Canada Post locations throughout the country.
If you’ve ever wanted to run your own peer-to-peer cryptocurrency exchange, now is your chance. The p2p cryptocurrency platform Hodl Hodl is opening up their software to the public to clone for themselves. This move allows anyone to operate an exchange of their own.
According to the company’s CEO Max Keidun, the impetus for the move is to keep the peer-to-peer exchange up and running in the event the company itself gets shut down:
“History teaches us that if a government wants to shut you down, it will,.. Let’s imagine, our domain gets blocked — some activist would be able to just take the code from Github, fork it and launch something new,” said Keidun.
Keidun and the company’s CTO Roman Snitko see this as the first in a long line of moves to shift Hodl Hodl’s management over to true decentralization. Hodl Hodl is already one of the most decentralized p2p organizations in the world, with no centralized office location.
The Chinese financial system is beginning to increase regulation in the p2p lending industry in the country. Regulators in China have asked p2p platforms to send their data to credit-reporting systems. This comes amid a bevy of scandals and fraudulent activity in the industry which financial regulators are looking to stop:
“The move is expected to help reduce the risk-control costs for P2P platforms, as they may have more knowledge about their borrowers. Regulators are also encouraging banks and insurers to raise loan rates and insurance premiums for “dishonest” P2P borrowers.
In recent years, Beijing has been tightening its grip on P2P lending, which matches lenders and borrowers through online platforms. The aim is to curb abuse and fraud, as billions of yuan of investor funds have been embezzled. The number of functioning P2P lending platforms has fallen dramatically over the past four years.”
Unfortunately, regulators in China in past years had not taken the p2p industry seriously, leaving its oversight to poorly staffed local authorities. The amount of p2p lending firms in the country shrank significantly after there were over 6,000 such companies in the country in 2015.
While p2p car sharing services are taking the automotive industry by storm, automakers have been left wondering where their place is in this new economy. Automakers could stand to benefit from owning a fleet of shared vehicles which they are able to service themselves.
This idea also could give companies a head start before the takeover of autonomous vehicles which will likely change the industry entirely:
“The experience we are able to gain through owning fleets of shared vehicles and learning how to service them gives companies that do that today a leg up compared to those that may jump in whenever autonomous vehicles come out,” said Mark Thomas, Vice President of Marketing, Ridecell. This scenario, he added, is the “pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.”
Peer-to-peer services don’t have to be so technical. In fact, if you have extra room in your garage you can be a part of the p2p storage industry. Roo is a company connecting those with extra space in their homes, attics, garages, etc. with those seeking extra storage space.
The company is targeting a younger demographic as these consumers are more likely to use this type of p2p service:
“Roo’s target market is college students and young professionals, a demographic that Laurent says is the “easiest path to entry,” as they are most inclined to be open to sharing platforms since they’ve been associated with Uber and Airbnb for so long. When it comes to hosts, users can create a listing online, select their type of space, enter the features they offer (e.g., security system, climate control, 24/7 access) and enter other details such as an address, size and description.”
Studies have shown that millennials are ten-times more likely to use p2p platforms than those ages 50 and up. But it is the next generation, Generation Z, which is now surpassing millennials in p2p usage themselves, as these consumers are so well-versed in digital technology p2p tools are second nature to this demographic.
