They weren’t almost shut down by PayPal. Their account was frozen for a short period of time while PayPal figured out who the hell they were and why tens of thousands of dollars were being sent their way during the crowdfunding campaign. PayPal did their due diligence and then unfroze the account. Completely normal.

If wallet was really about keeping Proton safe from banks/PayPal messing with payments then why did they wait almost a decade? It doesn’t make sense to me.

I’ve only had time to listen to the first 10ish minutes. I can follow his reasoning but I just don’t buy it. If payment options outside normal channels were so important why did they wait almost a decade? The framing of the issue with PayPal feels disingenuous too because there is/was a lot of crowd funding fraud. PayPal asked legitimate questions about the nature of the campaign and then quickly unlocked the account.

It also feels disingenuous because it’s not like Proton is going to ignore the laws. If a government legally asks for information they will turn it over. The same is true for money. So if Proton is in a position where banks are shutting down payments Proton has bigger problems. In fact, creating a wallet is going to cause more headaches for all Proton users. It already has a reputation as being used by bad actors and that belief* is being reinforced by having a built* in bitcoin wallet.

It feels like Proton has lost touch with reality. Their core products are stagnant and unpolished while they keep adding new services. Then they add a Bitcoin wallet and start cracking jokes about shitcoins. When there’s backlash from paying users, their volunteer mods demand civility, ie stop criticizing Proton.

I’m probably not going to leave Proton any time soon because the move from Google products was exhausting. But I have completely lost faith in the company and am on the lookout for an alternative.

What a terrible, stupid, and useless idea.