Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Apply with me to YC in the next 3 days and change the world

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 74 posts

Re: Apply with me to YC in the next 3 days and change the world

#51

Post by tempaccount987 »

deepkut wrote: post #36

Conceptually, I believe Bitcoins, or some derivative of them, will change the world. However, after writing a 25 page report on the legality of Bitcoins, I'm convinced the US government will view them as "domestic terrorism." Yes, you read that correctly. There are laws that state that anything that can be used to facilitate money laundering OR threaten the US economy is illegal. Don't get me wrong though, I'm one of…

Can you link to the paper? Happy to read it. My thoughts/plan in general though: basically do what facebook credits did. Get licensed as a money transmitter, collect info on all users to comply with AML and know your customer laws. It's a pain, and expensive but doable and there is precedent for it (Paypal blazed this trail as well). Then there will be a PR battle where you win hearts and minds by highlighting the benefit to small business owners.

Re: Apply with me to YC in the next 3 days and change the world

#52

Post by tempaccount987 »

asto wrote: post #50

I don't think alternative currencies have a long-term future. The only reason they exist now is because people and governments in most countries are quite ignorant about technology. Once they become more widely used, they will start causing a whole lot of problems* and will be banned by governments. The real solutions, in my opinion, have to use real currencies or they will face a severe risk of death by regulation.…

There is a precedent for doing it legally, Paypal, Facebook Credits, etc are all digital currencies. They do it by getting licensed as a money transmitter and complying with all AML and know your customer laws. It's an expensive and long process but people are able to do it. Not sure I fully understand the last two bullets. In general I think you're right that this startup will have larger legal challenges/costs than most but building something that is 100% above board and shows you're making a good faith effort to comply/do the right thing buys you a lot of good will. You want to be YouTube, not MegaUpload.

Re: Apply with me to YC in the next 3 days and change the world

#53

Post by itmag »

I have a friend of mine who would be a good fit. He is working on a product in the exact same space as you and he has a EU license to act as a payment provider. He's also the kind of person who wants to change the world.

Email me at allhailarnold@gmail.com and I will introduce you to him.

Re: Apply with me to YC in the next 3 days and change the world

#54

Post by neilkumar »

sgornick wrote: post #39
neilkumar wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But from my POV (consumer), I get a 30 day float (assuming I pay my bills on time). Whats in it for me to not use a credit card?

You know how some people pay with credit card simply to get the airline miles or 1% cash back? Who pays that? The merchant. (Well, the merchant adds it to the price that everyone pays, but I digress). Now given the option. Pay $100 with your credit card or pay $98 if paying with bitcoin, which are you going to choose. Stripe and PayPal both are at 2.99% + $0.30, Square is at a flat 2.75%. So giving the customer the 2…

But, almost no one seems to offer a discount for cash - which they pay 0% on and they don't have to wait to collect from the credit card companies.

There are so many of these alternative payments systems available nowadays, but none seem to really offer any benefits (or protection or increased warranties) to me over a credit card to change my personal purchasing behavior.

Re: Apply with me to YC in the next 3 days and change the world

#55

Post by asto »

tempaccount987 wrote: post #52
asto wrote: post #50

I don't think alternative currencies have a long-term future. The only reason they exist now is because people and governments in most countries are quite ignorant about technology. Once they become more widely used, they will start causing a whole lot of problems* and will be banned by governments. The real solutions, in my opinion, have to use real currencies or they will face a severe risk of death by regulation.…

There is a precedent for doing it legally, Paypal, Facebook Credits, etc are all digital currencies. They do it by getting licensed as a money transmitter and complying with all AML and know your customer laws. It's an expensive and long process but people are able to do it. Not sure I fully understand the last two bullets. In general I think you're right that this startup will have larger legal challenges/costs than…

Paypal is more of a wallet service that works with real currency. Even then it's quite heavily regulated in India, where I live. I'm not sure about other developing nations. FB credits have extremely limited use as far as I know, so it's not much of a threat. Another non state-issued currency is food coupons (like sodexo). As long as the new currency cannot be universally used, it's of no concern to the authorities.

You cannot, for example, pay some shady person for a handgun with FB credits or food coupons. From what I can tell, your currency will make that possible. If this transaction happens with a regular bank account (through creditcard or bank transfer), the bank will be able to point the police to the person involved. Will you also be able to do this? The price for reliably collecting, holding, updating such information is quite high.

Re: Apply with me to YC in the next 3 days and change the world

#56

Post by sgornick »

neilkumar wrote: post #54
sgornick wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You know how some people pay with credit card simply to get the airline miles or 1% cash back? Who pays that? The merchant. (Well, the merchant adds it to the price that everyone pays, but I digress). Now given the option. Pay $100 with your credit card or pay $98 if paying with bitcoin, which are you going to choose. Stripe and PayPal both are at 2.99% + $0.30, Square is at a flat 2.75%. So giving the customer the 2…

But, almost no one seems to offer a discount for cash - which they pay 0% on and they don't have to wait to collect from the credit card companies. There are so many of these alternative payments systems available nowadays, but none seem to really offer any benefits (or protection or increased warranties) to me over a credit card to change my personal purchasing behavior.

Merchants incur expenses dealing with cash as well, so accepting $0.98 worth of bitcoin might be equivalent to accepting $1.00 in cash and coin after the hassle of dealing with cash in factored in.

It will be some time before we see bitcoin used at retail, point of sale. But it really solves problems for online purchases -- for the merchant. And maybe that's where the the sweet spot is. If you want what the merchant sells and the merchant wants bitcoin (for the reasons you state -- protection from fraudulent customer chargebacks), you won't be given the opportunity to use your credit card.

Re: Apply with me to YC in the next 3 days and change the world

#57

Post by itmag »

utunga wrote: post #46
gavanwoolery wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is (genuinely) a great point, but I would ask what this mobile currency is based on - the country's currency? Is it mined like bitcoin? Processing payments via mobile phone bills is a different beast than creating a new currency, IMHO...but then again, maybe I am not understanding these companies correctly. :)

you may not have heard of m-pesa - which arose out of people being able to transfer mobile minutes and then became a fully fledge mobile currency in it's own right.. as xtrumanx says (below) m-pesa is huge. you might also note that this has already happened ;-)

That is very interesting. Is there some way I can start developing apps for the M-Pesa ecosystem? Mind pointing me in the right direction? :)

Re: Apply with me to YC in the next 3 days and change the world

#58

Post by nmridul »

gavanwoolery wrote: post #23

I hate conspiracy theories as much as the next guy, but there are a few basic principles I follow: 1) When people are making money off of something, they protect that method of making money, and evolve if necessary. 2) There are intricacies to our currency that might not seem immediately obvious. People depend on the discreet nature of physical currency - it controls the entire world of corruption (a lot of movies li…

Third world countries are great targets. In India (if you can still call it 3rd world) one of the largest mobile phone provider has come up with digital money that you can send to any other phone number. And most people own a mobile phone even if they have not seen a credit card in their life.

http://airtelmoney.in/wps/wcm/connect/airtelmoney/airtelmone...

Re: Apply with me to YC in the next 3 days and change the world

#60

Post by Dexec »

xtrumanx wrote: post #34
gavanwoolery wrote: post #23

I hate conspiracy theories as much as the next guy, but there are a few basic principles I follow: 1) When people are making money off of something, they protect that method of making money, and evolve if necessary. 2) There are intricacies to our currency that might not seem immediately obvious. People depend on the discreet nature of physical currency - it controls the entire world of corruption (a lot of movies li…

> 4) Third world countries are not a great target for digital currency IMHO, unless they have prevalent technology and understanding of it. I live in Somaliland. The top telecom company here, Telesom, has a mobile money transfer service here called Zaad. Basically, people setup a Zaad account at their local Telesom office and exchange their physical currency for credit in their Zaad account. They then buy stuff at sh…

Very informative post, thanks for sharing.

For anybody who'd like to get a feel for how well the existing players in this market are executing, take a look at Zaad's site: http://www.zaad.net/

Post reply on HN