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

news.ycombinator.com

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

#61

Post by davedx »

asto wrote: post #55
tempaccount987 wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.…

I'm pretty sure that storing an audit of your transactions is a legal requirement for any financial services company. It's a compliance no-brainer.

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

#62

Post by ig1 »

IMO You're better off applying on your own and stating your intention to find a cofounder.

YC does occasionally accept sole-founders who plan to find someone else, as far as I know (I may be wrong) they've never accepted a team which was put together by strangers for the purpose of YC.

YC places a huge emphasis on team (over everything else in the application) and team dynamics play an important part in that. They need to know the team won't fall apart when under pressure as that's one of the main reasons startups fail. If you pair up with someone you've never worked with, then neither you or YC have any indication how the team dynamics will work.

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

#63

Post by chefsurfing »

brandonb wrote: post #24

I know the OP and he's the "real deal." Hard-working, friendly, insightful, and smart. I'd definitely start a company with him if I hadn't already started one last year. So if you've been thinking about starting a startup but don't have a co-founder, shoot him an e-mail!

+1 He definitely is the "real deal". Known this guy for years and he is all of the above + healthy and hearty. Much startup experience and independent projects. Working with him on this would be a true adventure for those who have the privilege.

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

#64

Post by kirinan »

I like the idea, mainly because its such a big domain and a hard problem. I don't feel however that you should find a cofounder this way. Since this is such a tough domain to begin with, meeting someone and then starting a business together within days is setting yourself up for failure. The idea of changing the world is cool, and may be able to bind people together for the immediate short term, but what happens when you hit the really bad lows in the startup? You haven't known each other for very long, and may split. That being said, I'm sure you have already thought about that, and are ready for that risk. If you are, then god speed and I really do hope you can change the world.

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

#65

Post by deepkut »

tempaccount987 wrote: post #51
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 be…

Bitcoin Paper:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/86764784/Diepenbrock-BitcoinReport...

Due note that the paper was written in April of 2011. However, this shouldn't change any aspects of the legal analysis.

If you have any more questions, or just want to talk, let me know!

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

#66

Post by xtrumanx »

Dexec wrote: post #60
xtrumanx wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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/

If you think that's bad, try removing the www in the address. It just hits a GoDaddy parked page.

Also, take a look at this site: http://hadhwanaag.com. It's the most popular news website in Somaliland. I'm pretty sure someone can make a pretty penny just by setting up a nice themeforest-based theme for many of the country's websites.

The hard part will be convincing them their website looks atrocious.

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

#67

Post by maxcan »

DevX101 wrote: post #29
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…

Without commenting on your first 3 points, I'd argue that a 3rd world country could potentially be an excellent place to gain mass adoption. In the U.S. we have credit cards and fixed addresses to mail bills. There's probably a billion people who don't have this. There is absolutely an opportunity in 3rd world countries to leapfrog credit card systems, which for a variety of reasons don't work in these environments.…

IIRC, M-Pesa was launched by the dominant mobile phone carrier in Kenya. Its not exactly a model that a typical lean-startup even has an ice cube's chance in hell of success with.

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

#68

Post by marcamillion »

WiseWeasel wrote: post #33
marcamillion wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's kinda messed up that you guys outted this guy. Suppose he didn't want his employer to know?

K, I deleted the link to his profile page out of respect for his apparent intentions. If he was truly concerned about it though, he could edit out the name of the product and domain in the screenshots. You must admit that the unusual nature of such an anonymous request makes it likely that people are going to dig into it, just for the sport of it.

Well....that may very well be the case, but many people will gloss over it and not see it. When I first looked at it, I didn't see it. I didn't even look at the images in fullscreen.

It wasn't until AFTER you guys posted this that I went back and looked at it.

Either way, he clearly went out of his way to be anonymous, so it should be in the HN ethos to respect those wishes.

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

#69

Post by AlexeyMK »

tempaccount987 wrote: post #44
AlexeyMK wrote: post #31

I agree that credit cards are going to be displaced, but what is the rationale that the solution requires its own currency? Most transactions are very much within national (or European) boundaries. I think companies like Venmo, Dwolla and Square (or even PayPal) are well-positioned to becoming credit card alternatives. So: why Bitcoin/a separate currency?

I think Dwolla is a valid approach that is better in the short term (doesn't ask people to change as much) but is not as good in the long term. They are built on ACH which still takes 1-3 business days. The way I think of it is Credit card = fast and expensive, ACH = slow and cheap, digital currency = fast and cheap. So it's the speed of credit card at the price of ach. Also, ACH doesn't work internationally well so…

Sure, but look at the way Venmo/Square are approaching this problem.

Venmo: You have a venmo balance. Initially, money is brought in from a CC, but they just moved to Bank Accounts. Payments are fast because it's just venmo balance --> venmo balance most of the time.

Square: They control apps on the merchant (register, square) and the client (card case, now pay with square), rendering a physical credit card useless. At some point they connect to your bank account as well (or open their own bank).

I think having a niche currency is just another barrier to success. Not saying that you shouldn't proceed with this opportunity, but you're far from the only player in the space who realizes the magnitude of the opportunity and sees what the future looks like.

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

#70

Post by maxcan »

maxcan wrote: post #67
DevX101 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Without commenting on your first 3 points, I'd argue that a 3rd world country could potentially be an excellent place to gain mass adoption. In the U.S. we have credit cards and fixed addresses to mail bills. There's probably a billion people who don't have this. There is absolutely an opportunity in 3rd world countries to leapfrog credit card systems, which for a variety of reasons don't work in these environments.…

IIRC, M-Pesa was launched by the dominant mobile phone carrier in Kenya. Its not exactly a model that a typical lean-startup even has an ice cube's chance in hell of success with.

Just to clarify, I dont think that its impossible for a lean-startup to be successful in mobile payments, but I doubt that they can do that just by emulating m-pesa.
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