ProZ.com translation contests »
28th translation contest: "CPN contest" » English to Portuguese (EU) » Entry by Teresa Goncalves


Source text in English

Translation by Teresa Goncalves (#33829) — Winner

The Adam of all cryptocurrencies was invented more than a decade ago. Since the start of the internet and Jeff Bezos's glorious idea to start Amazon.com — lucky for us, not as Cadabra, which sounds like Cadaver — payment was a huge issue, especially fraud.
In the 1950s, credit cards were invented to solve the problem of carrying money bags with you. The first one was the Diners Card, which I still am a customer of today.

[...]

It allowed the merchant to copy the credit card information quickly on paper and hand a copy to the customer to countersign it. Its most recognizable characteristic was this swish pop sound.

Before the invention of this funny machine completing the payment process was handwritten paperwork, which just was a long process. I remember customers waiting in the line complaining, “Oh no, another one with a credit card. Now we have to wait much, much longer.” And it was true, the merchant had to get the papers out, write everything down in a readable format, check the identity of the customer and the signature, and this was time-consuming. Payment with cash compared to that was a quick and easy process—so much room for improvement for smart entrepreneurs.


Discuss this entry