Not an April Fool's post. Insane proof point for Self (self.xyz) technology to be used by Google and Tether in this novel offering!

Fun fact: “combo cards" letting users choose between debit or credit, including up to 12 installments, have been available in Brazil since the early 2000s Consumer choice is the way to go!

At Sync’25, Lightspark’s @ccatalini delivered a masterclass on open networks, a powerful reminder that openness and interoperability are the foundation of the next era of payments.

$SOFI SoFi launched their international remittance product last week to Mexico. So how competitive is that rate, and how does it stack up against Wise and $PYPL's Xoom (to name just 2 of many competitors)? To send $100 USD to Mexico, here's how the fees stack up: $SOFI (from the example) - $.80 total fees. 1994 MXN received. Wise: $1.75 USD fee (exchange rate $1 USD to $18.3865 MXN). Recipient gets 1806.47. $PYPL's Xoom: No fee (exchange rate $1 USD to 18.81 MXN). Recipient gets 1881 MXN.* (First time rate only; looks like it's a bit more expensive for non-first-timers). $SOFI LOOKS cheaper, but wait! There's a problem. Either SoFi is giving the most generous exchange rate in the world (of $1 USD to $20 MXN), or this is just a fictional example. The great thing is that we have a screenshot posted on Reddit of someone using this on Oct 17th. They sent $220 for a total of $1.10, with no network fee. Based on the exchange rate, it looks like SoFi DOES take a fractional cut from the exchange rate, but it's negligible. If this example holds, $SOFI is cheaper, at least for USD to MXN. We'll need more data to prove that out. If that's true: a) They'll gain SIGNIFICANTLY more volume over time as the word gets out. b) They're probably not making anything from this product. There's a couple of conversion events to and from $BTC, so this isn't a free process, and they have a partnership agreement. That's okay, since $SOFI may be doing this as a service (like free checks) that creates a better product and adds more people to the flywheel. Good work @anthonynoto and team!

The thing I respect most about @lightspark is that they're fundamentally practical. While most Bitcoin L2s are competing on what is essentially ivory-tower protocol-level achievement, the folks @spark are building products for the real world, and existing real payments systems.