Reader grabs card data, modulates it, the mic-in audio port hears it, software analyzes it, merchant service processes it, then you tweet it.
Squareup
51–60 of 158 posts
Re: Squareup
#52This sounds like a money grab business to me. They'll launch, make a couple hundred mil, then they'll get hit with fraud, a ton of people will lose money, and they'll be forced to shut down, since noone will want to use the service, in fear of getting defrauded. Since there is no barrier to entry, it'll be like 2 weeks before someone comes out with a black market version, that will look exactly the same, but instead…
Adding a 2FA scheme will make it as simple and easy as displaying a QR Code to the buyer that will redirect them to PayPal.
Re: Squareup
#53Innovative! Door to Door newspaper selling, Collections. Food Carts, Local Car Service, Donations. Anyone can take a payment for a service in real time. The transaction fees, security perception and ease of signup will determine it's adoption. The hardware cost can be reimburse to the client from the transaction fees.
Re: Squareup
#54This sounds like a money grab business to me. They'll launch, make a couple hundred mil, then they'll get hit with fraud, a ton of people will lose money, and they'll be forced to shut down, since noone will want to use the service, in fear of getting defrauded. Since there is no barrier to entry, it'll be like 2 weeks before someone comes out with a black market version, that will look exactly the same, but instead…
I didn't vote you down, but giving them the benefit of the doubt, why don't you think they would address this obvious concern from the start?
because it's impossible to address.
You are doing everything on another person's gadget. Any verification Square can come up with, can be bypassed by simply not implementing it.
Verified icon? Easy JPG
Encoded credit card #s? Who said the fraudsters would need to use your tool?
Square Verified badge? Easily copied.
It basically boils down to trust issue, early on, consumers will just be unaware of how vulnerable they are, but then stories will start popping up all over the place about how so and so, paid with a credit card for a taxi ride using Square, and then got hit with $5K in credit card fraud.
Re: Squareup
#55This sounds like a money grab business to me. They'll launch, make a couple hundred mil, then they'll get hit with fraud, a ton of people will lose money, and they'll be forced to shut down, since noone will want to use the service, in fear of getting defrauded. Since there is no barrier to entry, it'll be like 2 weeks before someone comes out with a black market version, that will look exactly the same, but instead…
There are regulatory barriers and I'm sure the audio coupler technology they're using is patent-pending.
why would someone involved in credit card fraud care about regulatory barriers and patents? These will be the same people who sneak into ATMs, and modify the readers.
This will basically just eliminate all the risk.
Re: Squareup
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
In order to make $90,000 begging, you would have to get $250 every day of the year. This seems highly unlikely. I'd say most beggars make more like $20 a day, but I'm just doing armchair science here.
yes but you have to look at the density of people. $250 every day = $25/hour if you "work" 10 hours a day. So 1 person donating $1 every 2.4 minutes. In that 2.4 minute period, there are probably 1,000 people walking by. Is it really that far fetched, that 1 out of those 1,000 people will "give back"? Especially in a city like New York where there are plenty of high income individuals?
Analysis is not evidence. Yes, it sounds reasonable. But that doesn't mean it's true. There are many factors your simple model doesn't take into account.
Re: Squareup
#57This could revolutionize begging. One of the last jobs that has not benefited from the computer revolution yet.
Funny, but there's something serious lurking in this comment.
Think about how US dollars declare, on the face of the bill, that the currency is good for all sorts of transactions (all debts, public and private). Even a beggar can get in on the use of this currency. People can easily give to a beggar with almost no overhead, and the recipient can spend the currency almost anywhere.
Credit isn't anywhere near that yet, especially since transaction fees are non-trivial. However, there's been a pretty major barrier to receiving credit payments, and even if someone was willing to pay the fees, there hasn't been a good way to interface with it.
Let's say I pay for two coffees with credit, and a friend wants to pay me with credit for one of the coffees. Even if I were willing to pay the transaction fee, I couldn't take their credit card, easily. PayPal is close to that point, but square is closer.
Settling trivial, private debts with credit will be just as good as any currency that works for all debts, public and private.
Re: Squareup
#58Good technology but it's mainly for businesses.
I'm still waiting for the ability to pay with your cellphone to any merchant. This is happening in Japan and Korea right now among others.
Maybe an IPhone or Android will have an RFID chip in the future.
Or maybe there will be a mobile app that displays a QR code that a merchant can scan and grab your credit card information.
Re: Squareup
#59This sounds like a money grab business to me. They'll launch, make a couple hundred mil, then they'll get hit with fraud, a ton of people will lose money, and they'll be forced to shut down, since noone will want to use the service, in fear of getting defrauded. Since there is no barrier to entry, it'll be like 2 weeks before someone comes out with a black market version, that will look exactly the same, but instead…
If you haven't read the PayPal story, you probably should. A good version of it is to be found in Founders at Work, as told by Max Levchin (the nerd who mostly solved fraud for PayPal). Turns out the early story of PayPal is the story of solving the fraud problem...so it is extremely relevant to this discussion. PayPal also started as a company doing security and payments on portable devices, so it's doubly relevant.
As far fraudulent devices, I think it's pretty safe to assume that people aren't going to be swiping their cards with random people; rather merchants and vendors that they already have a reasonable level of trust with, but in situations where sales would have been limited to cash only or more complicated and PO-based (trade shows, live events, sales guys in the field, etc.). It won't stop the kinds of fraud that already happens; like your waiter at a restaurant keeping lists of card numbers for sale on the black market. And, I guess it would make that kind of fraud easier, since the attacker would have more information.
But, people are, I think, pretty cagey with handing random people their credit card outside of the context of a reasonably trustworthy business. I doubt this will change that. I'm about the hit the road doing sales work for my company, and I can see this coming in very handy, and I don't think my potential customers would have any reason to be concerned about fraud (since they can easily check up on us, and know that I am who I say I am).
Re: Squareup
#60This could revolutionize begging. One of the last jobs that has not benefited from the computer revolution yet.
Funny, but there's something serious lurking in this comment. Think about how US dollars declare, on the face of the bill, that the currency is good for all sorts of transactions (all debts, public and private). Even a beggar can get in on the use of this currency. People can easily give to a beggar with almost no overhead, and the recipient can spend the currency almost anywhere. Credit isn't anywhere near that yet,…
With private debts, I believe credit card companies will treat that as a cash advance so the transaction fees will be pretty high. Maybe you can use bank accounts for that but the transfer will probably not be instantaneous.