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Root – Programmable bank account for software developers

root.co.za

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Re: Root – Programmable bank account for software developers

#71

Post by ska »

m3ta wrote: post #46
azeirah wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Analyse your spending habits to see where you can easily save some money is one example.

My BofA account has a whole spending habits section with graphics and charts and a ton of features, for free, which comes with my debit account. Why would I want to do all this myself? The only real answer is privacy, but I would just use BTC instead of USD if I wanted privacy anyway, and BTC is already programmable.

I haven't used BofA for a while, but in general the problems I have with these features are 1) inaccurate classification and no way to fix it 2) exported data does not include all of this, so if I move banks or want to do analysis I'm sol

ymmv, of course

Re: Root – Programmable bank account for software developers

#72

Post by louwhopley »

louwhopley wrote: post #68
needz wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any plans to back this with a blockchain of any kind?

We're currently playing in the fiat currency space, but we are keeping an eye out for ways to merge the two

One beta user built a script that sells bitcoin in real-time as he swipes his card and tops up his fiat account, effectively making his card "spend bitcoin" :)

Re: Root – Programmable bank account for software developers

#73

Post by pavel_lishin »

Sean1708 wrote: post #55
pavel_lishin wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wasn't their example all about limiting the number of rides you can take? So at that point, you'd eventually be denying them, as I understand it.

> Uber card: Let’s say you give your daughter R500 pocket money each month, but you’re worried she might run out of money and be unable to afford an Uber home. So you write a little code and give her a Root card that a) gives her a limit of R500 per month, and b) lets her take as many Uber rides as she needs (enabling her to spend beyond the R500, but only for Uber) That's the one I was thinking of, note the "lets he…

Oh, I missed that example! That is actually pretty cool.

Re: Root – Programmable bank account for software developers

#74

Post by [deleted] »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #29
Sean1708 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about the Uber example? That's seem pretty cool. But I think the problem it's attempting to solve is that without Root a bank must implement any kind of features that you may want, Root you allows you to implement any features you want. Although I can't decide whether this is an amazing thing, or a terrible terrible thing.

> What about the Uber example? That's seem pretty cool. edit: I didn't see the Uber example, so I was working off an incorrect premise. It actually makes sense. How would that work in real life? Uber doesn't charge you before your ride is complete, and at that point your payment would bounce, and now you're in trouble. Ditto for fast-food diet; nobody's going to be happy when you walk up to the counter at 16 Handles…

[deleted]

Re: Root – Programmable bank account for software developers

#75

Post by euyyn »

m3ta wrote: post #46
azeirah wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Analyse your spending habits to see where you can easily save some money is one example.

My BofA account has a whole spending habits section with graphics and charts and a ton of features, for free, which comes with my debit account. Why would I want to do all this myself? The only real answer is privacy, but I would just use BTC instead of USD if I wanted privacy anyway, and BTC is already programmable.

Citi has a similar section, and it's crap. If it were programmable I could use a third-party version of it.

Re: Root – Programmable bank account for software developers

#76

Post by louwhopley »

haftrine wrote: post #70
louwhopley wrote: post #54

Founder here :) Feel free to ask me any questions

Where does the code sit? Are you doing a callback when the authorization is triggered? How long do you wait for a response?

I'm assuming you're talking about RootCode? It's in a different secure environment (detached from our other systems) and unique to each user. The execution time is limited by the POS (point of sale) devices and varies

Re: Root – Programmable bank account for software developers

#77

Post by usegolang »

chrisfosterelli wrote: post #62
snowwolf wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How about streaming your transactions to a budgeting service to approve or deny if you've gone over budget for the month. Or build your own rules to deny certain transactions if you are approaching 0 balance. I think there are lots of use cases you could think of that are custom to you that no bank would ever build.

Personally, I would rather rely on self control and not have my card forcefully decline transactions. But maybe that's just me!

While I agree to some extent, if we ever want to get rid of welfare etc and move to a basic income for everyone one of the problems could be people mismanaging their basic income leading to people still starving or having other financial troubles.

Something like this API may make basic income more feasible if we could ensure that people aren't able to blow their budget and go hungry even with basic income.

Re: Root – Programmable bank account for software developers

#78

Post by wyager »

needz wrote: post #57
louwhopley wrote: post #54

Founder here :) Feel free to ask me any questions

Any plans to back this with a blockchain of any kind?

There is essentially no point to using a blockchain if the only thing you're putting on it is an accounting system you have absolute control over anyway.

I think tech people vulnerable to buzzwordism have an instinctive response to respond to any mention of money with "blockchain!", even though it's really only useful in this context for decentralized payment systems (i.e. not for banks). The only place banks might want to use blockchains is for low-trust inter-bank settlement.

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