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Those rails involve an amazing amount of complexity that boils down to the entire system being nonsensical. Payments are pulled instead of pushed; the underlyi
by amluto 2y ago
Those rails involve an amazing amount of complexity that boils down to the entire system being nonsensical.
Payments are pulled instead of pushed; the underlying credit card numbers lack even a semblance of security; there is all kinds of mis-design due to the way that restaurant tips work; it all started when credit card imprints/readers were all assumed to be offline; etc.
- beAbU 2y agoWhat do you mean "it all started..." ? One of my earliest memories is my mum paying for groceries using her credit card in the 90/00s, where the machine used was completely mechanical/manual. It copied the card number (that was embossed on the plastic) by literally taking a carbon paper rubbing of the card. The system was designed to be offline, because back then there was no "online".
- amluto 2y agoThat would be one of the credit card imprinters I referenced, which is offline… I also recall the occasional business writing down credit card details, in person, with a pen, on a form they had for the purpose.
- sroussey 2y ago> I also recall the occasional business writing down credit card details, in person, with a pen, on a form they had for the purpose. Sadly, I still see this...
- hakfoo 2y agoYou could argue the problem was that it took a system that more-or-less worked offline, and tried to hammer it into working online. A "built for online first" payment paradigm would look different, but it would have an enormous chicken-egg or installed-base problem, unless you had something with government-level muscle enforcing it.