Why wouldn't stripe just implement this themselves? Since their payment processing service (and API?) is 99% of the project, seems like they'd make their own and cut you off if this gained any traction.
Show HN: my weekend project, Gumroad
131–140 of 215 posts
Re: Show HN: my weekend project, Gumroad
#132Over this past weekend I had the idea to build a sort of link shortener but with a payment system built-in. There have been many times in the past where I wanted to share a link - on Twitter or just through IM with a few friends - but did not want to go through the overhead of setting up a whole store. So I built Gumroad. I coded/designed from 12PM -> 11PM on Saturday and 8AM -> 11PM on Sunday. There are still tons o…
I would include a sample URL or two on the homepage - I was confused as to how I would get people to buy/what the sales page would look like - but thanks for clarifying with the attached URL.
Re: Show HN: my weekend project, Gumroad
#133please tell us when the first (real) vc are knocking on your door ... this is just awesome and has more potential then the most startups covered by techcrunch and co
Re: Show HN: my weekend project, Gumroad
#134If this becomes a high traffic site, it could really help fight internet piracy. If I have a high demand, hard to find video, I'm far more likely to try to sell it than just give it away. And even if I can't because the site is closely watched by the actual copywriter holders, the idea that money can be made off any online property can give internet knowledge and assets the feeling of physical worth, to the degree that people may grow hesitant to just give away their video and music files. It also has potential to detract from the information free-for-all of the internet, as people may also grow hesitant to share in general, but that would only be for sellable things, so blogs and general information are basically out. If successful, this site could make major change in the attitude of the internet. In essence, conflict exists between copyright holding companies, who believe their intellectual property should be paid for, and the general population of the internet, who freely share information constantly. This conflict could seriously benefit from a general shift toward the resounding feeling that information and online assets are worth something and should be bought and sold. That could be of serious detriment to the culture of the internet, but the communities could also gradually adjust. After all, the feeling that assets have monetary value is the way we live in the real world, its only a matter of time before the internet starts to follow.
Re: Show HN: my weekend project, Gumroad
#135Are you collecting taxes? if it's a company registered in the US
Also how do you deal with chargebacks?
Re: Show HN: my weekend project, Gumroad
#136Earlier quoted context omitted.
No, it isn't. Bitcoins are clever and all, but how many people would be willing to set it up just to see a link?
Sure, at the moment only nerds use Bitcoins, but this _could_ become as universal as PayPal is today. But yes, it probably doesn't make much (commercial) sense right now.
> Bitcoins [...] _could_ become as universal as PayPal is today
Putting aside numerous other issues, bitcoin.org states "The total eventual circulation will be 21 million bitcoins".
[EDIT: DanI-S pointed out that bitcoins can already be subdivided. So this was switched from "there are too few bitcoins to support even American e-commerce" to "bitcoins are not valuable enough to support even American e-commerce". The number of fractional bitcoins is still an issue, but less immediately.]
At the current ~$0.70 / bitcoin, this means that every American will be able to have ~$0.05 in his or her electronic wallet, once all bitcoins are generated. Assuming that the rest of the world does not participate at all and that bitcoins are evenly distributed.
Sure, you could imagine an instant dollar-to-bitcoin-to-dollar conversion at the point of payment. Or you could imagine a bitcoin2.org that generates more coins. Or you could hope for a massive surge in the value of the bitcoin.
I'd put my money on Paypal sticking around, though.
Re: Show HN: my weekend project, Gumroad
#137Interesting idea, but I see two main issues with this. First, anyone who pays and gets to the resulting link can trivially share that link; of course, you can always ask them nicely not to do so, and in some contexts that will work, but in general the security model just doesn't work unless you authenticate each paid user at the destination. You need to come up with an answer to this. Second, if you market this as a…
Think long term adjustment to the mentality of the site. If that link was worth something, why would the buyer just give it away? It's possible that the buyer would try to sell it and compete with the original seller, and all subsequent buyer might follow, but that would be something the original seller could take into account in pricing their product.
I agree that the link shortening aspect of this site cannot be it's product. Emphasizing that at all can detract from the truly novel idea that exists in selling and buying micro-properties of internet knowledge. People need to see the incredible nature of a site which allows you to sell information which has high demand and low supply, but has no other method of paid distribution. For everything too small to put in a book, and not small enough to just give away. I think its brilliant.
Re: Show HN: my weekend project, Gumroad
#138So it's funny that this happens today: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2407969
Re: Show HN: my weekend project, Gumroad
#139Earlier quoted context omitted.
No, it isn't. Bitcoins are clever and all, but how many people would be willing to set it up just to see a link?
Just a crazy idea, when something like NaCl catches on perhaps gumroad could generate bitcoins client-side in lieu of payment?
This doesn't seem like a good match. With different hardware and prices of electricity out there it would be hard to make the system fair for everyone. Also, although minting coins is an important feature of Bitcoin, it seems there's a certain amount of miners needed to offset threat of fraudulent transactions; going significantly above that amount is just wasting planet's resources.
Re: Show HN: my weekend project, Gumroad
#140Things you have to look at fast. * Money laundering. Cap fees now. * You are using Stripe, but you're still collecting CC data. Are you PCI compliant? * Does Stripe allow you to do this? Really? Basically, you're acting as a third party processor, an IPSP. People can sell anything through your service (Think adult content) I'm really interested if Stripe is aware of what you are doing and fine with it.
Yes they're aware. Fees are already capped. I'm not collecting CC data.
That's cool. Far too many people ignore what a solid relationship with the upstream payment provider can give you.
Glad the fees are capped. I saw a $100 link, so not sure about what the cap is.
As for collecting CC data, if it's passing through your code, even if you don't store it, you are accountable for it. I've seen the silliest things with people claiming they aren't storing CC data. And yet, you can browse file after file of automatically generated logs that contain raw CC data.
That you aren't storing CC data makes your life easier. However, I'd still review what you are liable for just in case. I don't say any of this bash you (I really like the idea!), but so you avoid any problems that cause you to shut down (because it's a cool idea!). I've been doing this for 10 years now, and as soon as someone opens up a payment system like this, money laundering and other schemes will review how to abuse it. So when I see something like this, I get nervous. I ask: how would I exploit it.