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Bad guys will buy cheap stolen credit cards (and there will be intermediaries for more legit ones). One credit card bought for 2$ - one hundred thousands emails

by Yizahi 7y ago

Bad guys will buy cheap stolen credit cards (and there will be intermediaries for more legit ones). One credit card bought for 2$ - one hundred thousands emails sent. On the other hand payment processors will drown in transactions which cost more than amount sent. And before someone says "blockchain" - highly unlikely that it could work, but lets say maybe, for some specific token system. But eventually it will be plagued with exact same issue - easily and cheaply stolen funds will empower millions of emails and system will struggle under millions of useless transactions, problem won't be solved.

jedberg 7y ago
You wouldn't use traditional credit cards for micropayments. You'd need a dedicated micropayment processor just for emails that is significantly cheaper (like .01 cents per transaction). The microprocessor would have an incentive to create anti-fraud systems. Perhaps you can't send email until 30 days after you pay or something like that. It would be a place of innovation. It could even start with the big players, like Gmail and Hotmail, allowing big senders to put down deposits. In a dystopian world, it would be implemented by Gmail/Hotmail/etc. and they would allow free emails amongst themselves and then charge other senders. That's honestly how it would probably go down in the real world.
- Yizahi 7y ago
  Just another processor won't solve the problem existing today - fund need to get into this system and they will get there from regular CC or regular people, which are stolen and sold cheaply today. It will be a battle between fraud and checks. The way they will battle this is "the dystopian" way, you are correct there - more and more closed systems, proprietary protocol additions, ban of 3rd party clients, eventually it will work only internally in google, microsoft and apple. It already starts to happen with dynamic emails, blocking imap etc.

by Yizahi 7y ago

jedberg 7y ago

You wouldn't use traditional credit cards for micropayments. You'd need a dedicated micropayment processor just for emails that is significantly cheaper (like .01 cents per transaction). The microprocessor would have an incentive to create anti-fraud systems. Perhaps you can't send email until 30 days after you pay or something like that. It would be a place of innovation. It could even start with the big players, like Gmail and Hotmail, allowing big senders to put down deposits. In a dystopian world, it would be implemented by Gmail/Hotmail/etc. and they would allow free emails amongst themselves and then charge other senders. That's honestly how it would probably go down in the real world.

Yizahi 7y ago
Just another processor won't solve the problem existing today - fund need to get into this system and they will get there from regular CC or regular people, which are stolen and sold cheaply today. It will be a battle between fraud and checks. The way they will battle this is "the dystopian" way, you are correct there - more and more closed systems, proprietary protocol additions, ban of 3rd party clients, eventually it will work only internally in google, microsoft and apple. It already starts to happen with dynamic emails, blocking imap etc.