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In Europe and the UK there is now the Open Banking standard [1] that should technically make it a lot more feasible to do micro payments because it allows accou

by mavili 4y ago

In Europe and the UK there is now the Open Banking standard [1] that should technically make it a lot more feasible to do micro payments because it allows account-to-account transactions, therefore not needing to go through Visa/Mastercard processes and fees. [1] https://standards.openbanking.org.uk/ https://standards.openbanking.org.uk/

tomatocracy 4y ago
Maybe. One potential problem is that the banks aren't likely going to want to spend time dealing with verifying security and onboarding for smaller operators who want to use the APIs directly for this, which will mean aggregators have to get involved (who in turn will need to take a cut to cover costs and make a reasonable profit).
- mavili 4y ago
  Yeah there will be that but if I'm not mistaken it isn't the banks who need to authorise individual API providers. There is a directory of allowed services that get whitelisted by the Open Banking "consortium" - I don't think a bank can then deny any requests coming from that list. However, you're still correct because to get whitelisted by Open Banking is in itself a long process and has requirements that makes it unfeasible for many small service providers.
Terry_Roll 4y ago
The cost of going through a payment processor for micropayments has always been more than the micropayment because the "security checks" over and above using TLS security on a website starts pushing the costs up _if_ done properly. Saying that those costs should be coming down today compared to a decade or two ago because there is also much better surveillance, more bugs and backdoors/zero days have been found and with the global inflation stalking the planet, ironically it could be the inflation that helps make micro payments become more popular. This is why advertising fees pay for search engine results and its an excuse to intelligence grab from businesses through their advertising criteria so its not just human end users who get surveilled.
byyll 4y ago

by mavili 4y ago

tomatocracy 4y ago

Maybe. One potential problem is that the banks aren't likely going to want to spend time dealing with verifying security and onboarding for smaller operators who want to use the APIs directly for this, which will mean aggregators have to get involved (who in turn will need to take a cut to cover costs and make a reasonable profit).

mavili 4y ago
Yeah there will be that but if I'm not mistaken it isn't the banks who need to authorise individual API providers. There is a directory of allowed services that get whitelisted by the Open Banking "consortium" - I don't think a bank can then deny any requests coming from that list. However, you're still correct because to get whitelisted by Open Banking is in itself a long process and has requirements that makes it unfeasible for many small service providers.

Terry_Roll 4y ago

The cost of going through a payment processor for micropayments has always been more than the micropayment because the "security checks" over and above using TLS security on a website starts pushing the costs up _if_ done properly. Saying that those costs should be coming down today compared to a decade or two ago because there is also much better surveillance, more bugs and backdoors/zero days have been found and with the global inflation stalking the planet, ironically it could be the inflation that helps make micro payments become more popular. This is why advertising fees pay for search engine results and its an excuse to intelligence grab from businesses through their advertising criteria so its not just human end users who get surveilled.

byyll 4y ago