RFC: Browser Payments API Proposal

Hi Web Payments IG -

I wanted to let everyone know that we recently released an explainer doc
for a new web payments API proposal, paymentRequest, to the Web Platform
Incubation CG <https://www.w3.org/community/wicg/> for consideration:

http://discourse.wicg.io/t/rfc-proposal-for-new-web-payments-api/1100/1 [1]

We welcome comments, questions, and suggestions on the proposal. While it
would be preferred to keep the discussion inside of the Discourse thread,
please of course feel free to reply to this email directly as well.

A couple of important things to note: 1.) This is not meant to be a spec.
It's just meant to be a proposal for an API that we could build, so it's
lacking some necessary detail. 2.) We do include an API for dealing with
shipping options. While this is not currently in the charter, the more I
think about the problem, the more essential I believe this step is. The API
is designed, however, such that shipping could be left out. 3.) The
proposal is similar in some ways to what Manu proposed
<https://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-webpayments/2015Sep/0002.html>
last
week, but with key some differences. The name similarity is purely
coincidental. :)

Our hope is that this work, while it starts within the incubation group,
will get merged into the WG when it's formed. Putting it in the Incubation
CG now allows it to be seen and vetted by a lot of good, smart people.

For those who aren't yet familiar with the Web Platform Incubation CG, it's
a community group that "provides a lightweight venue for proposing and
discussing new web platform features" and is quite active. They have a full
blog post available explaining it:
http://www.w3.org/blog/2015/07/moving-the-web-platform-forward/

Thanks,

Zach

[1] The explainer doc is also up on Github if you wish to fork or submit
pull requests:
https://github.com/zkoch/paymentrequest/blob/master/explainer.md