Payment Request API • Hacker News Board

litzer wrote: post #5

For anyone else like me who was overwhelmed by all the information and just looking for summaries: "In one sentence, how does it work? Payment Request API enables a user to complete a transaction more easily by reusing information stored in the browser or third party payment apps." https://github.com/w3c/payment-request-info/wiki/FAQ

This also opens up the door to more secure payments. The "basic card" handler is one where the browser might just store your raw card number. But you can imagine that your bank might implement a payment handler that requires you to enter a 2fa code before using your card.

When it comes down to it, a credit card number is kind of serving double as a username and password for online payments right now. This new API has the potential to significantly improve upon the security of raw PANs.

Re: Payment Request API

#14

Post by ceejayoz » Mon, Sep 18, 2017, 12:57 AM UTC

baybal2 wrote: post #4

Why do we need to put a payment api into a browser?

Having used Apple Pay a few times on my phone, I'd love to see such a thing implemented across the board. It was remarkably easy.

Re: Payment Request API

#15

Post by pfg » Mon, Sep 18, 2017, 1:00 AM UTC

Gaelan wrote: post #8

aerovistae wrote: post #2

Wonder how this impacts Stripe

I'm pretty sure it doesn't. It would just let Stripe add a "use credit card data from your browser" button that avoided making users type it in every time.

Not only that, but they can also register as a payment provider in the user's browser, allowing for a convenient checkout flow on any site that uses Stripe.

Re: Payment Request API

#16

Post by cptskippy » Mon, Sep 18, 2017, 1:05 AM UTC

Android Pay for the Web uses a version of the Payment Request API, I surprised by how similar it is to the Apple Pay for Web implementation. We implemented both for sending payment requests from our App, I found the Payment Request API to be much better documented and easier to implement than Apple Pay for Web and significantly easier to test.

Re: Payment Request API

#17

Post by canremember » Mon, Sep 18, 2017, 1:06 AM UTC

askvictor wrote: post #11

baybal2 wrote: post #4

Why do we need to put a payment api into a browser?

To enable micropayments for content such as news.

True micropayments integrated in browser would be amazing. Imagine instead of ads or subscriptions, you could pay a few pennies for an article. It would revolutionize online content, in a good way. Nobody would be willing to pay for clickbait type stuff, but I think people would be willing to pay for quality content and journalism.

Re: Payment Request API

#18

Post by StavrosK » Mon, Sep 18, 2017, 1:13 AM UTC

So there's now a protocol for the browser to transparently share payment data with websites but we still can't get something to let the browser transparently log us in to websites?

Re: Payment Request API

#19

Post by swiley » Mon, Sep 18, 2017, 1:14 AM UTC

StavrosK wrote: post #18

So there's now a protocol for the browser to transparently share payment data with websites but we still can't get something to let the browser transparently log us in to websites?

The w3c seems to be run by people who make money on the web, not people who use the web.

Re: Payment Request API

#20

Post by gobengo » Mon, Sep 18, 2017, 1:17 AM UTC

It's exciting and all that this API could make us not have to type in our credit cards so often.

But the same API should also be able to let us choose which wallet to pay cryptocurrencies from.