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0 pointsthrowawaysea4y ago0 comments

I don’t really find Square or Stripe to be doing something mind blowing, if we’re talking about the core payments features. These should just be an open standard as they are developing in India, where people can transfer their money to each other without rent-seeking monopolists or just tech giants sheltered from competition via network effects. Payments are just a basic utility for society, not something to be controlled by authorities like giant tech companies.

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4 comments · 2 top-level

necovek4y ago· 2 in thread

Payments are a basic utility, but the hidden cost of ensuring funds are available on request in every conceivable location are not to be ignored.

If you disagree, why not run a payments service at no or low cost yourself?

jokethrowaway4y ago

Honestly, I thought about doing it.

It could be a nice passive business to be a small payment gateway provider. It's not rocket science, I could implement it alone. You invest some money to make it compliant with the security standards of the sector, charge less than all the other fat companies and you have another income stream.

The only cons is you have to abide to so much stupid regulation in order for it to be legal (not secure, I'm fine with the private rules to ensure safety in running the service), and then making sure your customers are not doing something your government doesn't want them to do (like cleaning "dirty" money) and identify your customers (KYC).

I looked also into starting a bank (you can do it with just 1mln in some places!) but you run into similar issues.

It's a legal nightmare; if there was no government, I'd definitely do it.

necovek4y ago

I think you are still ignoring the unknown unknows which are abstracted away through legislation and government.

If we exclude government, and avoid any fees from external providers (let's imagine a cryptocurrency-like asset), how would you warrant your solvency in fulfilling all the transactions and converting to fiat (which is ultimately what customers need today in a payments processor).

I can't see it having a widespread appeal without costs matching the order of magnitude existing ones do (sure you can do it cheaper, but why haven't cryptocurrencies achieved it?)

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ElFitz4y ago

I remember seeing diagrams with some of the steps and stakeholders involved in nearly each credit card transaction, and it was quite the nightmare.

Sure, it should be simpler. Much simpler.

But given what we currently have, to have the option of abstracting all that away via pretty clear, mostly predictable and well documented APIs really is nice.

It’s also complex for a reason, and not just because of inherited legacy processes and systems.

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