Earlier quoted context omitted.
How do you imagine the outcome would have been different in a hypothetical world with an entirely privatized justice system?
I was in this situation, I lost roughly 2k£. I tried to go to court for 8k£ in small claims which is what the law allowed for as a compensation for the crime. This guy got arrested by the police, he was released and then run away to Dubai where he's from. He came back after a month and opened a company under a false name and started doing the same scam. I knew his address, I reported everything to the police and the…
Ask HN: Why is Docusign a $50B company?
281–290 of 348 posts
Re: Ask HN: Why is Docusign a $50B company?
#282Re: Ask HN: Why is Docusign a $50B company?
#283I haven't found free, open-source solutions, but HelloSign[0] is a decent solution if you only need to sign documents a few times per year. Their free tier supports three documents per month. They make it look like they only have paid plans, but you can sign up without a credit card for a free tier. [0] https://www.hellosign.com/
Re: Ask HN: Why is Docusign a $50B company?
#284https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_signature_in_Estonia
(yes, "free to use" means tax-funded, no need to point this out)
Re: Ask HN: Why is Docusign a $50B company?
#285Earlier quoted context omitted.
Having an audit log of access (both email and IP address) is extremely useful if someone asks "did this person actually perform the e-signature". You can then perform motions regarding whether their email has compromised and, if needed, go to their ISP for IP assignment records to see if their account (mobile or home internet) was assigned to that IP. Docusign being the source of authority for the validity of the ori…
I've always felt that this is the kind of service that a government should offer. It seems a little silly to have to pay a private entity for this kind of service and also a bit unreasonable that a private entity like Docusign is so enmeshed with the legal system.
I just wish someone would drag both political parties kicking and screaming into the modern age. Give Republicans their voter ID requirements they claim to want so much and give Democrats mandatory widespread adoption for every citizen homeless or otherwise. Make it mandatory to even pay income tax.
Re: Ask HN: Why is Docusign a $50B company?
#286Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I always go back to, who’s going to invest in actually building the new blockchain solution and for what reason? blockchain is really hot with VCs these days, so that’s who. why? the rewards for a document signing product are large — as evidenced by new traditional companies entering the space (HelloSign). basing a new competitor in this space off of blockchain offers differentiation. despite being less mature or f…
I’m not sure what point you’re trying to make. That there is money to be made on industry solutions is not in dispute. The point in dispute is that decentralized blockchain based solution makes any sense. Other than to attract VCs who don’t know any better to give you capital, blockchain offers no competitive advantage to an upstart or really a competitive threat to the incumbents. Further I see no desirable “differe…
document signing is just another form of attestation (“i agree to the terms outlined in this document, effective on ”. blockchains are really good at providing tools for attestation. the specific customer advantage? it’s extremely difficult for your counterparty to claim that he didn’t sign your term sheet if he changes his mind. you just point to some record on the blockchain and say “this has your digital signature on it. it says you agreed to those terms, and it was published at ”.
obviously, DocuSign solves this problem of attestation, by custodianing the documents and putting meaningful reputation on the line in order to remain trustworthy. OTOH, it’s not unheard of to see for-profit companies cash out their reputation (e.g. big brands which sell the brand/logo to cheap manufacturers once the company stops innovating). attestations on a large blockchain (like Bitcoin or Ethereum) augment that reputational cost with a financial cost: even if Docusign decided to cash out their reputation, it would cost billions of dollars to reverse the attestation: a significant barrier.
so it depends on how much you — or the parties you deal with (ex: courts) — trust Docusign. it’s not inconceivable to me that at least a handful of customers might say “i don’t completely trust that any document middleman will not lie about my counterparty’s attestation down the road. but i do trust that blockchain B is secure enough to prevent reversals, so this blockchain-based document signing service might be a better product for me.”
Re: Ask HN: Why is Docusign a $50B company?
#287Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not an employee, and didn't exactly get fired -- but I chose a cloud vendor for a client that seemed like the best choice at the time, with what I knew. The client was over-the-moon happy that we had found something to satisfy his needs. After switching, his costs went down dramatically, and his downtime went to zero (from rather high, which is why he brought me in). He was happy to sign a contract with the vendo…
Wow, that guy dodged a bullet by not going with aws free credits. After a year he would have ended up being locked in aws and paying tons more.
Re: Ask HN: Why is Docusign a $50B company?
#288Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not an employee, and didn't exactly get fired -- but I chose a cloud vendor for a client that seemed like the best choice at the time, with what I knew. The client was over-the-moon happy that we had found something to satisfy his needs. After switching, his costs went down dramatically, and his downtime went to zero (from rather high, which is why he brought me in). He was happy to sign a contract with the vendo…
> switch to only doing training Tell us more about this transition? Sounds interesting!
Here are two interviews I've given on the subject:
- https://devjourney.info/Guests/83-ReuvenLerner.html - https://doubleyourfreelancing.com/business-freelancing-episo...
I'm always happy to talk about training. I love it, and recommend that everyone in the consulting world look into it more.
I also have a training newsletter, at https://TrainerWeekly.com/.
Re: Ask HN: Why is Docusign a $50B company?
#289Earlier quoted context omitted.
And there we go - why DocuSign is a 50b business. Sounds like OP doesn’t understand the complexity.
Can you replicate DocuSign if you were given 50B USD ? Well, then you know if it's overvaluated or not :o)
Re: Ask HN: Why is Docusign a $50B company?
#290Most of the documents people e-sign are related to business deals (contracts, NDAs, etc) or HR (offer letters) which are such high dollar value transactions that the cost of e-signing is negligible. Your use case unfortunately is just not worth it to them in comparison.
One may as well ask "Why does Adobe charge $30/mo for Photoshop?"