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0 pointsmavili2y ago0 comments

> This would cut alot of middle companies out of the payments industry

Not really. All it will do is let the same companies change the way they handle average citizens' payments.

It's the same as Open Banking in Europe. It is supposed allow small businesses to leverage this to enable innovation and all that stuff, but when you want to use these APIs you find there are limitations on who can actually use it. For example, you can only put your service to production by being on a "directory" of approved providers, and to be on that directory you need something 25k or 50k in an account. So, not really that useful for a small startup wanting to make a product out of it.

Banking systems are the backbone of world power dominance, big players won't let small people share it.

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ncallaway2y ago

> So, not really that useful for a small startup wanting to make a product out of it.

I mean, 50k puts it out of “a couple people starting something in their garage”, but it doesn’t really lock out much beyond that. That’s pretty close to the franchise fee for opening a McDonald’s.

Yes, it could be more equitable, but if that’s the only barrier to access, it’s… pretty open for even quite small businesses.

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thrashh2y ago

50k is nothing. That’s not even the salary for one person in a year.

If you can’t scrounge together $50k to start a banking business, you probably should not be starting a banking business.

Bruh, I could get $50k right now if I go through a line of credit for small businesses as a regular person.

adventured2y ago

It's not particularly difficult for a small start-up to come up with $25,000 in the US.

That's modest angel investor money in a small city.

yieldcrv2y ago

Aside from playing devil’s advocate, do you have a sensible reason why it should be this way versus another way?

kelnos2y ago

I would assume such a system is capable of facilitating fraud, so it's probably good to have some kind of financial hurdle you have to jump in order to use it? Not that having $25k or $50k is a guarantee that you aren't a fraudster, but I imagine there are a lot of would-be fraudsters who don't have that kind of cash on hand.

I do think this is a bit of a weak justification, though.

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civilitty2y ago

50k is small peanuts, even for a friends and family round. I’d expect any startup dealing with banking transactions on my or my businesses’s behalf to have at least that much in a bond or escrowed away for counterparty risk.

maviliOP2y ago

A lot of people complain that 50k isn't much of a hurdle. Yes, I also agree that I as an individual can actually get that loan tomorrow if I want, but the point is "open" banking is meant to open up opportunities and should have as little hurdles as possible and the 50k is just one example.

Look into going into the business and you will realise other hurdles like having some insurance that will cost you tens of thousands, and more costs. When you compare that to, say, creating an app and putting it up on an app store, we can agree that there is a huge difference.

Of course I understand that banking means playing with people's money and therefore measures need to be put in place. But instead of requiring financial assets maybe the 'measure' should all be around technology and your service will need to have gone through extensive testing to ensure it won't be exploited. Otherwise 50k is peanuts like someone said when it comes to covering any financial loss incurred if your service is messed up. So that 50k is just to filter out a huge majority of individuals wanting to create something for themselves.

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