[earnesti]

Can you elaborate on the technicals? Is it a phone app? Does it work through QR codes or NFC? Is there a Pix "card"?

[dormento]

Brazilian here.

- no card

- technically not a specific app, its a payment method that any app with a checkout flow (for example) can chose to implement.

- you register some id with your financial institution of choice (any of CPF - equivalent to SSN, CNPJ - for businesses, phone number, email or a randomly generated key).

- keys are fully portable, as in you can revoke em or change the bank institution they're associated with any time.

- you can generate a QR code on the spot so the person paying can just scan it

- transfer is pretty much instant (under 5s seems to be the norm)

- no NFC (so works with any crappy phone)

- since its a bank transfer, and since bank transfers are insured up to 200k (afaik), its pretty safe.

[lucasoshiro]

> you can generate a QR code on the spot so the person paying can just scan it

You can also generate a R$0,00, print it and leave to the other person input how much will be transferred.

PS: Pix is so trivial to us that only in places like HN we can see how amazing it is

[owebmaster]

> - no NFC (so works with any crappy phone)

It is possible to pay using NFC now

[vitorgrs]

There's NFC support now... You can now use Pix inside Google Pay (with NFC or QR code etc as well).

[catsma21]

> its a bank transfer

why can't we just use qr codes with ibans in that case?

[rpgbr]

It's a framework laid out by Central Bank and mandatory for medium and large-sized banks and payment companies. (For small ones, it's optional.)

Pix has several rules that makes up for a nice UX, such as being free for personal use and a 10-second limit to get a response after a transaction.

Pix is an open source specification, btw: https://github.com/bacen/pix-api

[lucasoshiro]

Pix is basically a commercial name for two services:

- SPI: responsible for the payments

- DICT: responsible for mapping keys to accounts

The API documentation of those services are available, but only banks can use them. When a person wants to send money to another, there's an option in the bank app for sending through Pix.

Then you have many options to define to whom you'll send that money:

- typing the bank account information

- using the Pix key (which can be an phone, email, CPF/CNPJ (brazillian documents) or a generated key)

- scanning a QR code

Note that the two latter options don't require the account information. That resolution is done by DICT.

After that, you type how much you'll send (sometimes the QR code already contains this information). Then it'll send through SPI.

And yeah, it's really, really fast.

[xeromal]

This sounds really cool. Is there a verification step where you confirm that the right number or identifier was entered for the first payment to someone? That's always one of my biggest concerns and I don't want to enter a number twice as the verification.

[fdgjgbdfhgb]

You use your bank's phone app. You can scan a QR code or you can send money to someone if you know their "id string", like a phone number, an email or a random string of numbers - you choose the "id string" format you want, and you can have different "ids" linked to different bank accounts. There are no physical cards.

[aembleton]

What happens if you miss-type the email or phone number when making a payment? Is there any confirmation of the persons name?

[kyrra]

Google Wallet also supports Pix via Open Finance. You don't need your bank app after going through account linking.

(Googler, opinions are my own.)

[rapfaria]

You can have several unique keys, a few are unique to the whole system (like your phone number, Physical Persons Register (CPF)), but you can have several randomly generated per bank. Usually you tell someone your phone number, otherwise the random generated string is a big string, and you actually show them a QR code so they can transfer to your account, and vice-versa.

[badocr]

It's a functionality of banking apps. Yes, transfers are done either via a QR code or via one or more "Pix Keys", that the person/bussiness authorizes in their baking app. These keys can be the brazilian equivalent of your SSN, a cell phone number, an e-mail address or a randomly generated UUID-formated one.

[DeathArrow]

>Can you elaborate on the technicals? Is it a phone app?

Isn't paying with some phone apps the default in China? And I think transferring using phone apps has some success in Africa, too.

[homebrewer]

I used Alipay (which is an Android application where you add a debit or credit card) for absolutely everything when I was there in October of last year. Sure seemed like everyone else was using it too.

Except for Hong Kong, they have their own thing. I just used Google pay there.

[maleldil]

It's a protocol. You make payments through your bank app. You can make payments directly, basically a bank transfer, or through a QR code.

[mndgs]

True that, ISO 20022 based.