8 ms·

Ask HN: Review my micropayments startup, RubyPay

14 points by rubypay 16y ago

I just launched my new startup, and was hoping for some feedback. It's a micropayments site based around selling digital content, with a focus on making it dead simple for sellers to set up. https://www.rubypay.com

unohoo 16y ago
If you setup a demo site with sandboxed transactions, it will be very useful for publishers to evaluate quickly if they'd want to use your service.
- rubypay 16y ago
  Thanks for the suggestion, for now if you'd like to see what a paid link looks like: https://www.rubypay.com/i/9c7wfUo4ACZ https://www.rubypay.com/i/9c7wfUo4ACZ
Concours 16y ago
clickable: https://www.rubypay.com https://www.rubypay.com
jlogic77 16y ago
It's a good idea. I like the idea that this can get around the high transaction costs per transaction, but the points system is a little confusing. The one line of code thing is cool and should be easy to get publishers to try it.
chrisclark1729 16y ago
You should really find a way to incentivize people who want to pay to join the site. I can't even figure out how to join as a payer, let alone a reason why I should.
- sgoraya 16y ago
  I agree - A 'buy RubyPoints' image/link might be desirable; and similarly to parent comment, what is the major incentive here? What site(s) currently offers redemption of Rubypoints? > Thanks for the suggestion, for now if you'd like to see what a paid link looks like: https://www.rubypay.com/i/9c7wfUo4ACZ https://www.rubypay.com/i/9c7wfUo4ACZ Rather than having to sign-in to view how a transaction is done, can you have a demo page that includes 'dummy' rubypoints that can be redeemed to view a pdf/mp3 - for me, it would help make a decision about whether the service is useful or not. In general, cool idea! I'm just the type of person that would like to see the service in action without having to login/create an account first.
  - rubypay 16y ago
    I added a demo area for you, hope it gives you a better idea of how the app works. https://www.rubypay.com/pages/demo https://www.rubypay.com/pages/demo
byoung2 16y ago
RubyPay has zero transaction fees. I like the way you've worked around the transaction fee issue by offering different rates for buying and redeeming. The cheapest points are $0.00769 to buy and redeeming gets you $0.00667. So, on average, for every $57.69 coming in (or more, if people buy in smaller amounts), you're paying out $50, plus any interest you earn on parked balances.
dangrossman 16y ago
How much time have you spent with lawyers and consultants on your verbiage, terms and agreements with payment processors? The thing that worries me about any new payment startup is whether they've covered all the right bases... if they haven't, they can be out of business overnight when they realize what they missed. It's a fine line between selling points and factoring (processing payments on behalf of another business), where factoring is contractually forbidden in almost every merchant account and 3rd party processor contract.
jacquesm 16y ago
Hey there, great initiative, make sure that you get approval to run a 'wallet system' or you could find yourself in a ton of trouble. Maintaining a balance on behalf of customers comes with a ton of responsibilities, in the EU you would be considered a bank.
- spylogic 16y ago
  Even if it's these elusive "points"?
  - jacquesm 16y ago
    Points bought and redeemable for cash that you can use to pay people are money, period.
  - byoung2 16y ago
    It's basically the same setup as iStockPhoto. There, you buy "credits" for some arbitrary exchange rate that you can use to buy photos from other members, who then exchange the points for payouts. There is a period of time where the credits are bought and not used for purchase, and a time where they are used but not redeemed. There are plenty of businesses who handle this without a problem, so I doubt he'll have trouble setting it up.
    - jacquesm 16y ago
      No, that's definitely not the same. There is no potential for fraud and / or tax evasion and / or money laundering in that situation. With a wallet system you have those in spades.
      - byoung2 16y ago
        Actually, it's exactly the same. In both systems, I deposit my money with the company (RubyPay or iStockPhoto) in exchange for a certain amount of points/credits. They hold onto my money until I buy something. On iStockPhoto I buy a few pictures, on RubyPay maybe I buy access to a premium blog post. The points are transferred from my account to the seller's account. The seller then redeems the points/credits for a payout by check. Is there a difference between the two that I missed (besides the fact that iStockphoto screens submissions)? There are ample opportunities for fraud on both sites. For example, say I'm a drug dealer and I need to collect illicit funds from customers. I could post a digital image on iStockphoto and require my customers to buy it before I give them the drugs. Or if I already had a stack of cash I needed to clean I could set up fake accounts to buy my own images, and pay taxes on the profit.
f7u12 16y ago
I could see myself using your service to charge monthly for access to a webapp. Do you have any plans for that, so that a user has to pay only once per month instead of each click? Apologies if that is already in place.
- rubypay 16y ago
  Subscriptions are not available yet, but they will be in a few weeks. Just to clarify, the user does not pay per click, but rather per link. If a user has already paid for a link, clicking the link a second time will forward the user to the correct content.
andrewtbham 16y ago
what's the phrase... content drives adaption... you are going to need some very compelling content providers to make this work. have you considering to find a niche of content that people might pay for? istockphoto does seem like a relevant example... there are also lots of niche services that people pay for... like elance, 99designs, trada...
rakkhi 16y ago
+ points: Like the simplicity, if customer experience is good I would definitely try this for my blog - points: Need to support more payment options e.g. Paypal and Google checkout. No way am I putting my credit card into your application. If you are storing these details I also hope you know you have to be PCI-DSS compliant Small bug: edit profile to add address etc gives you an error because the change password verification box is empty
rubypay 16y ago
Thanks for everyone's feedback. I've closed the service.

14 points by rubypay 16y ago

unohoo 16y ago

If you setup a demo site with sandboxed transactions, it will be very useful for publishers to evaluate quickly if they'd want to use your service.

rubypay 16y ago
Thanks for the suggestion, for now if you'd like to see what a paid link looks like: https://www.rubypay.com/i/9c7wfUo4ACZ https://www.rubypay.com/i/9c7wfUo4ACZ

Concours 16y ago

clickable: https://www.rubypay.com https://www.rubypay.com

jlogic77 16y ago

It's a good idea. I like the idea that this can get around the high transaction costs per transaction, but the points system is a little confusing. The one line of code thing is cool and should be easy to get publishers to try it.

chrisclark1729 16y ago

You should really find a way to incentivize people who want to pay to join the site. I can't even figure out how to join as a payer, let alone a reason why I should.

sgoraya 16y ago
I agree - A 'buy RubyPoints' image/link might be desirable; and similarly to parent comment, what is the major incentive here? What site(s) currently offers redemption of Rubypoints? > Thanks for the suggestion, for now if you'd like to see what a paid link looks like: https://www.rubypay.com/i/9c7wfUo4ACZ https://www.rubypay.com/i/9c7wfUo4ACZ Rather than having to sign-in to view how a transaction is done, can you have a demo page that includes 'dummy' rubypoints that can be redeemed to view a pdf/mp3 - for me, it would help make a decision about whether the service is useful or not. In general, cool idea! I'm just the type of person that would like to see the service in action without having to login/create an account first.
- rubypay 16y ago
  I added a demo area for you, hope it gives you a better idea of how the app works. https://www.rubypay.com/pages/demo https://www.rubypay.com/pages/demo

byoung2 16y ago

RubyPay has zero transaction fees. I like the way you've worked around the transaction fee issue by offering different rates for buying and redeeming. The cheapest points are $0.00769 to buy and redeeming gets you $0.00667. So, on average, for every $57.69 coming in (or more, if people buy in smaller amounts), you're paying out $50, plus any interest you earn on parked balances.

dangrossman 16y ago

How much time have you spent with lawyers and consultants on your verbiage, terms and agreements with payment processors? The thing that worries me about any new payment startup is whether they've covered all the right bases... if they haven't, they can be out of business overnight when they realize what they missed. It's a fine line between selling points and factoring (processing payments on behalf of another business), where factoring is contractually forbidden in almost every merchant account and 3rd party processor contract.

jacquesm 16y ago

Hey there, great initiative, make sure that you get approval to run a 'wallet system' or you could find yourself in a ton of trouble. Maintaining a balance on behalf of customers comes with a ton of responsibilities, in the EU you would be considered a bank.

spylogic 16y ago
Even if it's these elusive "points"?
- jacquesm 16y ago
  Points bought and redeemable for cash that you can use to pay people are money, period.
- byoung2 16y ago
  It's basically the same setup as iStockPhoto. There, you buy "credits" for some arbitrary exchange rate that you can use to buy photos from other members, who then exchange the points for payouts. There is a period of time where the credits are bought and not used for purchase, and a time where they are used but not redeemed. There are plenty of businesses who handle this without a problem, so I doubt he'll have trouble setting it up.
  - jacquesm 16y ago
    No, that's definitely not the same. There is no potential for fraud and / or tax evasion and / or money laundering in that situation. With a wallet system you have those in spades.
    - byoung2 16y ago
      Actually, it's exactly the same. In both systems, I deposit my money with the company (RubyPay or iStockPhoto) in exchange for a certain amount of points/credits. They hold onto my money until I buy something. On iStockPhoto I buy a few pictures, on RubyPay maybe I buy access to a premium blog post. The points are transferred from my account to the seller's account. The seller then redeems the points/credits for a payout by check. Is there a difference between the two that I missed (besides the fact that iStockphoto screens submissions)? There are ample opportunities for fraud on both sites. For example, say I'm a drug dealer and I need to collect illicit funds from customers. I could post a digital image on iStockphoto and require my customers to buy it before I give them the drugs. Or if I already had a stack of cash I needed to clean I could set up fake accounts to buy my own images, and pay taxes on the profit.

f7u12 16y ago

I could see myself using your service to charge monthly for access to a webapp. Do you have any plans for that, so that a user has to pay only once per month instead of each click? Apologies if that is already in place.

rubypay 16y ago
Subscriptions are not available yet, but they will be in a few weeks. Just to clarify, the user does not pay per click, but rather per link. If a user has already paid for a link, clicking the link a second time will forward the user to the correct content.

andrewtbham 16y ago

what's the phrase... content drives adaption... you are going to need some very compelling content providers to make this work. have you considering to find a niche of content that people might pay for? istockphoto does seem like a relevant example... there are also lots of niche services that people pay for... like elance, 99designs, trada...

rakkhi 16y ago

+ points: Like the simplicity, if customer experience is good I would definitely try this for my blog - points: Need to support more payment options e.g. Paypal and Google checkout. No way am I putting my credit card into your application. If you are storing these details I also hope you know you have to be PCI-DSS compliant Small bug: edit profile to add address etc gives you an error because the change password verification box is empty

rubypay 16y ago

Thanks for everyone's feedback. I've closed the service.