Aside from the fact (as others have pointed out) that this has been tried and failed, how is this genuinely useful and not the kind of thing that a social media guru would dream up, but normal people would never use?
Why not a platform to let people buy stuff by posting on their blog? When I post "BUY PRODUCT_NAME", their google alert can pick up the mention and then they can leave a comment on my blog telling me how to setup my billing and shipping info. Amazing!
EDIT: To boil all the above down, what problem is this solving?
First, you don't need a credit card at all.
Second, after authorizing your account you can buy, sell, donate or direct pay all you want. The initial setup is one step. After that it's frictionless commerce.
Third, you'll want to buy stuff for the same reason you want to buy stuff on any other e-commerce channel. Even more so when Brands will be offering special Twitter only deals.
Finally, it's genuinely useful for so many people. Just ask the food cart owner who is using our Direct Payments to collect payments. Or, the Etsy seller who can now sell their goods on Twitter. Just a few examples of current uses.
To illustrate just one problem it solves: Currently, brands list items in their storefronts. Then they go on Twitter and Tweet about it. Then a customer clicks on a link in the Tweet and is taken off Twitter to their storefront. Then the customer goes through 5 more clicks before a transaction occurs. Sell Simply eliminates all of that. The Tweet is the listing and the checkout and the transaction combined in one. One step frictionless commerce. That's a brand solution. There are others.
Normal people are using it, by the thousands. This will only grow.
This wasn't thought up by a SM guru, but by a hacker like yourself.
Well, it would not be the perfect channel to buy sexual toys, for instance, but at least you can know a lot about the seller/buyer with a glimpse at their twitter profile
The problem for the hacker is that in order to get paid their fake Twitter account would need to be connected to a real PayPal account which is connected to a real bank account. The entire chain of transaction would be very traceable.
If your Twitter account is hacked you are going to immediately realize you are transacting over Twitter. You'd see pay tweets and transaction tweets occurring in real time. You could then easily just shut off your PayPal connection to Twitter in your Sell Simply account. We do not store any Twitter or PayPal login, password or account data at all.
In line with the post that @avichal wrote the other day (http://avichal.wordpress.com/2011/11/14/build-something-peop...): why now?
Novelty, sure, but practical? Not in my mind.
