4 ms·

Would Uber for example need those licenses? Why not use “credits” where buyer makes a single payment and then uses those credits to make smaller transactions

sneak 6y ago
I'm not really sure that the financial model of micropayments, nor the incentives of those accepting such payments, lends itself very well to middlemen, platforms, or rent-seekers. For anything that hopes to become as ubiquitous as HTTP, it needs to be standard, decentralized and distributed, and extensible, a system where anyone can stand up an endpoint without centralized approval. I think the governmental stranglehold on payments in most of the developed west is going to be a hard barrier to such a thing ever developing, and instead we'll see the continued growth of centralized chokepoint platforms like Facebook, Medium, Uber, PayPal, Square, et c. It's a real tragedy, because all of the tech is now in place for a total any-to-any model of content, APIs, and payments. It's just illegal. (And not even "a little bit" settle-your-way-out illegal like web spidering under a super strict interpretation of copyright law, but SWAT-machine-guns-in-your face, "terrorism and child porn and money laundering!" pearl-clutching dozens-of-years-in-jail mega super illegal.)
- mschuster91 6y ago
  > terrorism and child porn and money laundering! Because that's, let's face it, is exactly what such a system would be used in a non-negligible way. Bitcoin got a lot of early adopters with Silk Road and the likes.
  - sneak 6y ago
    Buying controlled drugs online is none of terrorism, child porn, or money laundering. I'm not sure that the available data supports your argument. You'd also be crazy if you thought that e.g. PayPal is not used "in a non-negligible way" for the purchase of controlled drugs or child pornography or sex trafficking victims. Anything widely used by millions of people is going to be used for the kinds of payments that millions of people make, whether legal or illegal. That's not an argument against the system existing.
    - mschuster91 6y ago
      > Buying controlled drugs online is none of terrorism, child porn, or money laundering. I'm not sure that the available data supports your argument. Illegal drugs are a major source of funding for terrorism, e.g. Afghani heroin, or the Latin American cocaine gangs. > Anything widely used by millions of people is going to be used for the kinds of payments that millions of people make, whether legal or illegal. It also creates a paper trail which any criminal worth his salt wants to avoid. I have never heard about Paypal being used for child porn or paying a trafficked hooker, the latter is a purely cash based business anyway..

sneak 6y ago

I'm not really sure that the financial model of micropayments, nor the incentives of those accepting such payments, lends itself very well to middlemen, platforms, or rent-seekers. For anything that hopes to become as ubiquitous as HTTP, it needs to be standard, decentralized and distributed, and extensible, a system where anyone can stand up an endpoint without centralized approval. I think the governmental stranglehold on payments in most of the developed west is going to be a hard barrier to such a thing ever developing, and instead we'll see the continued growth of centralized chokepoint platforms like Facebook, Medium, Uber, PayPal, Square, et c. It's a real tragedy, because all of the tech is now in place for a total any-to-any model of content, APIs, and payments. It's just illegal. (And not even "a little bit" settle-your-way-out illegal like web spidering under a super strict interpretation of copyright law, but SWAT-machine-guns-in-your face, "terrorism and child porn and money laundering!" pearl-clutching dozens-of-years-in-jail mega super illegal.)

mschuster91 6y ago
> terrorism and child porn and money laundering! Because that's, let's face it, is exactly what such a system would be used in a non-negligible way. Bitcoin got a lot of early adopters with Silk Road and the likes.
- sneak 6y ago
  Buying controlled drugs online is none of terrorism, child porn, or money laundering. I'm not sure that the available data supports your argument. You'd also be crazy if you thought that e.g. PayPal is not used "in a non-negligible way" for the purchase of controlled drugs or child pornography or sex trafficking victims. Anything widely used by millions of people is going to be used for the kinds of payments that millions of people make, whether legal or illegal. That's not an argument against the system existing.
  - mschuster91 6y ago
    > Buying controlled drugs online is none of terrorism, child porn, or money laundering. I'm not sure that the available data supports your argument. Illegal drugs are a major source of funding for terrorism, e.g. Afghani heroin, or the Latin American cocaine gangs. > Anything widely used by millions of people is going to be used for the kinds of payments that millions of people make, whether legal or illegal. It also creates a paper trail which any criminal worth his salt wants to avoid. I have never heard about Paypal being used for child porn or paying a trafficked hooker, the latter is a purely cash based business anyway..