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Root – Programmable bank account for software developers

root.co.za

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Re: Root – Programmable bank account for software developers

#201

Post by EGreg »

run4yourlives2 wrote: post #181
s_dev wrote: post #45

People asking about what problem this solves haven't been to South Africa or Zimbabwe which in some ways are ahead of the West in creating cashless societies. The biggest bank is a phone operator and people can send each other money over the phone and from what I understand this is very common. Also interestingly most phones aren't smart phones. It's mostly analog. Banks have a serious incentive to create and encoura…

"ahead of the West" Ahem, ahead of the US, really. Canada and the EU can be cashless already, with chip cards and direct bank withdrawal at the POS a reality for 99.99% of merchants.

China is cashless. Stores don't accept your cash much. And you have to show a government id to buy anything. And they track you.

But it gets worse than that. If the government wants to punish you, they can just cut you off. Can't buy food, can't pay rent.

Oh you think your friends can help you? China has that covered too, with its shiny new credit system. Being associated with - let alone helping - people cut off from buying food may result in a drastic lowering of score and ability to do business yourself.

On the bright side, used wisely such coersion may he better than outright violence at stopping criminals and terrorists.

Re: Root – Programmable bank account for software developers

#202

Post by executesorder66 »

jamesrcole wrote: post #149
s_dev wrote: post #45

People asking about what problem this solves haven't been to South Africa or Zimbabwe which in some ways are ahead of the West in creating cashless societies. The biggest bank is a phone operator and people can send each other money over the phone and from what I understand this is very common. Also interestingly most phones aren't smart phones. It's mostly analog. Banks have a serious incentive to create and encoura…

Do you know of the sorts of benefits it has brought in those places?

There's lots of people from Zimbabwe, Malawi, Mozambique etc. who come to South Africa because they can make more money here. Then they send the money back home. But if they send cash back it gets stolen 90% of the time. If they transfer the money it from one bank account to another, they don't lose their money.

Making transactions more customizeable/automated is a great advantage. Why would you not want that? Also, this just came out, so it remains to be seen what long term effects it may have.

Re: Root – Programmable bank account for software developers

#203

Post by jamesrcole »

executesorder66 wrote: post #202
jamesrcole wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you know of the sorts of benefits it has brought in those places?

There's lots of people from Zimbabwe, Malawi, Mozambique etc. who come to South Africa because they can make more money here. Then they send the money back home. But if they send cash back it gets stolen 90% of the time. If they transfer the money it from one bank account to another, they don't lose their money. Making transactions more customizeable/automated is a great advantage. Why would you not want that? Also,…

> Making transactions more customizeable/automated is a great advantage. Why would you not want that? Also, this just came out, so it remains to be seen what long term effects it may have.

I fully agree.

Re: Root – Programmable bank account for software developers

#204

Post by SmellyGeekBoy »

apostacy wrote: post #135

When can I have direct control of recurring payments? I want to be able to "push" money instead of having it "pulled" from my account. This is a totally reasonable feature. If a merchant wants assurance that they will be paid, they should charge a deposit. The closest I've had is Entropay, but I don't really trust them for large payments. Recurring payments are so abused, I can't count how many times I have been misl…

In the UK this is known as a "standing order". The account holder is fully in control of how much money goes out and when. Is this not the case in other places?

Re: Root – Programmable bank account for software developers

#205

Post by executesorder66 »

louwhopley wrote: post #87
aphextron wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's the backend? How is my money secured and insured? Who actually underwrites the transactions?

The underlying banking infrastructure is provided by Standard Bank of South Africa

Does Standard Bank own a stake in Root, or do they just supply infrastructure/services?

Can this interact with FNB or ABSA accounts? Is it international? In short, what are the limits?

Also, I just want to say this is really cool. I've wanted something like this for ages.

Re: Root – Programmable bank account for software developers

#206

Post by run4yourlives2 »

EGreg wrote: post #201
run4yourlives2 wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"ahead of the West" Ahem, ahead of the US, really. Canada and the EU can be cashless already, with chip cards and direct bank withdrawal at the POS a reality for 99.99% of merchants.

China is cashless. Stores don't accept your cash much. And you have to show a government id to buy anything. And they track you. But it gets worse than that. If the government wants to punish you, they can just cut you off. Can't buy food, can't pay rent. Oh you think your friends can help you? China has that covered too, with its shiny new credit system. Being associated with - let alone helping - people cut off fro…

Thankfully, there is a good amount of space between money under mattresses and a government controlled economy. Your comment is a giant straw man. Canadian and EU systems are private ones and the government has little or no power to directly intervene, short of law enforcement.

The idea that eliminating paper is some sort of boogeyman from Revelations is about as silly as the idea that holding on to your Glock allows you defend your rights against a corrupt government. Neither actually offer any type of protection against these particular issues.

Unless you are wandering around with $20K in cash everyday, your bank account is still subject to the very things you seem to be afraid of. The only thing that changes in a mostly cashless society is your access to your bank account. If the government is going to freeze your account, it matters little if you have a chip card or need to go to the teller.

Thankfully, we in the west have moved most of the management of this to the private sector, and require things like warrants before any real action is done. That can and is an issue at times, but has little effect on the day to day implementation of one method over another.

Re: Root – Programmable bank account for software developers

#207

Post by moftz »

apostacy wrote: post #135

When can I have direct control of recurring payments? I want to be able to "push" money instead of having it "pulled" from my account. This is a totally reasonable feature. If a merchant wants assurance that they will be paid, they should charge a deposit. The closest I've had is Entropay, but I don't really trust them for large payments. Recurring payments are so abused, I can't count how many times I have been misl…

I wish I could just have the ability to create virtual credit card numbers. I would be able to fill it with a certain balance, set up recurring balance refills, change the expiration date, keep a merchant whitelist, and cancel the number at any time. This gives me the opportunity to make sure that even if my card number was stolen or abused, the charge won't go through. If I sign up for a free trial or a service I only want for x months but need a card on record, I give them a virtual number and set the card up to cancel itself after the period is up. Or if I want to put all my netflix, hulu, pandora, etc charges on one number, I can set a monthly allowance for each merchant. If someone changes their prices, the charge gets declined and I can go back and reup the limit if I want.

Re: Root – Programmable bank account for software developers

#208

Post by louwhopley »

RangerScience wrote: post #199
louwhopley wrote: post #54

Founder here :) Feel free to ask me any questions

1) Is there any way to get the itemized receipt as part of the event information? (I don't even know if that's sent by the credit card widgets...) 2) What are your plans for supporting other languages? ( cough Ruby cough ) 3) How would I make a script integrate with a 3rd service?

Hi RangerScience, the APIs are based on REST, so any language that can handle https are supported. We're also working on libraries for a bunch of popular languages :)

Re: Root – Programmable bank account for software developers

#209

Post by jacksnipe »

apostacy wrote: post #166
programbreeding wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe what apostacy meant was the ability to prevent a recurring payment from occurring without approval. I may have misunderstood what they meant but something along the lines of: a debit shows up in your account as pending, and you have X amount of time to approve or decline it. That way you are preventing a debit from even occurring in the first place, rather than having to fight your bank to get the money bac…

What I basically want, is to have more control. I want a similar amount of control as to what I have with paper money, or even virtual in game currencies. Right now, the scale is not tipped in my favor. I would be happy to pay for it. I understand that banks have reasons for things to be arraigned the way they are. I would love to have a "personal firewall" level of control over my money. I'd like to see that Widget…

This screenshot from the front page seems to be offering something like what you want? [1] And they clearly support virtual cards so why wouldn't automating that work through their API? [2]

[1] https://root.co.za/images/rootcode.svg

[2] https://root.co.za/images/mobile-desktop-mockup.jpg

EDITS: added 2nd part and formatting

Re: Root – Programmable bank account for software developers

#210

Post by mavidser »

apostacy wrote: post #135

When can I have direct control of recurring payments? I want to be able to "push" money instead of having it "pulled" from my account. This is a totally reasonable feature. If a merchant wants assurance that they will be paid, they should charge a deposit. The closest I've had is Entropay, but I don't really trust them for large payments. Recurring payments are so abused, I can't count how many times I have been misl…

Exactly. I always imagined a future where there would be an oAuth scopes like gateway for banks. Something like -

This website requires the following permission:

    [x] Monthly recurring payments of $20
        [o] Automatically get the payments
        [ ] Send me the link to deposit every month

    > Proceed
    > Cancel
Life would have been so simpler then (Obviously I haven't thought this through completely, but something similar to this with proper security would be far superior than our current model of Name + Credit card number + CVV).
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