P2P banks, 1 line of code • Hacker News Board

gfunk911 wrote: post #8

Not sure why all the comments here are harping on the "one line" thing. The point is that you can transfer money with one command and no pre-existing state. That's pretty great.

And no security. That's not so great.

EDIT: What I mean by this is that if you give me your account number so that I can deposit into it, then I can also withdraw out of it (not through the Dwolla API, but trivially by other means -- see http://perimetergrid.com/wp/2008/01/01/checks-the-most-dange...)

Re: P2P banks, 1 line of code

#15

Post by alttab » Thu, Jan 17, 2013, 2:22 AM UTC

1. Create fraudulent product page with billing form.

2. Add 1 line of code

3. ...

4. Profit!

Re: P2P banks, 1 line of code

#16

Post by shousper » Thu, Jan 17, 2013, 2:49 AM UTC

Is anyone else annoyed at the mix of parameter naming conventions, or is it just me? (e.g. client_id, emailAddress, client_secret, firstName).

Re: P2P banks, 1 line of code

#17

Post by makmanalp » Thu, Jan 17, 2013, 2:53 AM UTC

lisper wrote: post #14

gfunk911 wrote: post #8

Not sure why all the comments here are harping on the "one line" thing. The point is that you can transfer money with one command and no pre-existing state. That's pretty great.

And no security. That's not so great. EDIT: What I mean by this is that if you give me your account number so that I can deposit into it, then I can also withdraw out of it (not through the Dwolla API, but trivially by other means -- see http://perimetergrid.com/wp/2008/01/01/checks-the-most-dange... )

This is an inherent flaw in the system though, right? Not anything new.

Re: P2P banks, 1 line of code

#18

Post by martinced » Thu, Jan 17, 2013, 4:06 AM UTC

Bruce Schneier would be proud.

It's good to see the world catching up and putting the emphasis on security.

[/sarcasm]

Re: P2P banks, 1 line of code

#19

Post by NegativeK » Thu, Jan 17, 2013, 4:14 AM UTC

jamoes wrote: post #12

It's not really "P2P" if it's going through a central authority...

P2CA2P?

If only "2CA" was an identity.

Re: P2P banks, 1 line of code

#20

Post by mindslight » Thu, Jan 17, 2013, 5:19 AM UTC

gfunk911 wrote: post #8

Not sure why all the comments here are harping on the "one line" thing. The point is that you can transfer money with one command and no pre-existing state. That's pretty great.

Because people can feel there's something deeply wrong with this, but can't quite pinpoint what it is. They've forgotten that the whole philosophy of the Internet [SRC81] was to get rid of middlemen, not just to create new ones.