a reddit user shared their story
Just woke up to an Email from PayPal stating that my account was permanently limited, thinking it's a scam I check and lo and behold: I was limited.
But what had I done? Well my only purchases using PayPal were through Itch.io, that's the only thing I use it for.
It seems I was limited for breaking "the policies of our partners" mentioned in the first paragraph of the notice. It's no secret that PayPal are quite close with Mastercard and Visa, who have been pushing hardest for this porn ban (sorry, specifically the NSFW Games sphere).
So this is a PSA: if you're using your PayPal account for anything else, don't use it for Itch.
PSA is wrong.
Correct PSA is
What do you recommend as an intermediary between banks and people, who can't use crypto?
I've used zelle for years, it's built into every bank app I own and goes directly from my bank to my friends banks. I thought PayPal and Venmo and all that was just used for buying strangers feet pics or whatever nowadays
I've never heard of that. Is that a European thing?
No, it's a US giant-monster-mega-bank thing.
Nope, I'm from Pennsylvania lol
I've never heard of Pennsylvania. Is that a European thing?
yes! a british colony from 1681 named after the european religious extremist and slaver William Penn. After eradicating most of the natives with european diseases they stirred shit for 100 years before throwing in with a bunch of other rich white slavers in a complex tax avoidance scheme called The United States.
zelle is an immediate transfer from a bank to another person's bank. It's had some issues with fraud and scams, but I've never had an issue personally. It's in the US and maybe abroad too, idk.
Looks like it's only in the US.
https://www.zellepay.com/faq/can-i-use-zelle-internationally
Afaik the scams mostly involve people being convinced to zelle money to strangers, which is a non reversible process.
Unfortunately, Not available with many credit unions.
Why do you need an intermediary, you can use bank transfers and cards.
paypal has a more robust chargeback mechanic and is also more widely supported by the world than a swift bank account. it also handles metadata and checking who you're paying/getting paid from better than a swift bank account. there are definitely benefits to it, even if it's financial hell on earth. just recently i managed to do a full chargeback for something expensive, after the seller didn't give me my money back after sending the item back within the 14 days and the item also being defective. the seller was fully uncooperative, but paypal managed to claw the money back. I'd call that a win. I also find it weird how if a company has your bank or credit card details it's trivially easy for them to falsely charge you. That's insane. I know a chargeback is similarly easy, but still. Having a way to make sure to only allow charges with specific intent on your part is amazing.
(i don't use credit cards, the closest i am to debit cards is using google pay. stores here usually support credit and debit cards, yes, but also checking accounts using the aforementioned swift system.)
Why can't they use crypto?
There's a high barrier to entry and most shops don't accept it. I support crypto becoming mainstream and simple to use, but it's not there yet.
The grocer down the street won't take crypto.
Even for using UPI (United Payments Interface, essentially state sponsored net-banking app on mobile), they ask me to send to one of their friend's device, because they don't have enough money to buy a smartphone.
Now, who is going to give me cash (which I need to be able to eat) for crypto without taking an exorbitant cut?
The chain outlets for groceries of course don't take crypto.
If you want this to match the context, then assume I made the NSFW game you wanted and instead of buying off of Steam, you came to me to buy it and want to pay with crypto.