Re: Coinbase released a wordpress plugin

On 14 August 2013 17:26, Steven Rowat <steven_rowat@sunshine.net> wrote:

> On 8/13/13 3:15 PM, Kingsley Idehen wrote:
>
>  I see that Coinbase also offers a payment processing service, and you
>> aren't restricted to their wallet.
>>
>>
> Very interesting new company; seems well thought-out and funded, at least
> based on their main page self-report. :-)
>
> But also, they explain in their blog (about half-way down the page):
>
> http://blog.coinbase.com/
>
> "You Can Now Send Micro-Transactions With Zero Fees".
>
> This section of the blog might be the most succinct explanation of the
> micro-transaction problem and why it's important that I've seen.
>
> And they seem to have a solution for it that is currently operating, at
> least within their own wallet.
>
> Then at the end of the blog they say, about this micro-transaction
> capability:
>
> "In the future you might be able to:
>
>     Read the rest of a New York Times article for a few cents using
> BitWall, instead of signing up for a full monthly subscription
>     Buy in-game credits without paying 30% in fees to the platform or
> payment processors
>     Pay for wifi internet metered by the minute (or second!) if you just
> need to check one email
>     Support your favorite artists or coders with a tip
>     And many more ideas.
>
> We’re excited to see what you come up with.
>
> Then they link to their API Overview:
>
> https://coinbase.com/docs/api/**overview<https://coinbase.com/docs/api/overview>
>
> I'm not sure the code mechanisms will integrate with what this list is
> doing, but if so it might be a way to make a general solution for the web
> for micro-transactions. (At least for BitCoin -- but who knows, maybe
> that's the only way this problem will be solved).
>
> I know I'm out of my depth here, so pardon me if such integration is
> either obvious or impossible. But just in case it's somewhere in between, I
> didn't want you to miss it.   :-)
>

Yes, well spotted!

Coinbase acts as a trusted third party (TTP) in this case, so if you trust
coinbase you can do instant micropayments.  It's not unique to coinbase,
anyone who can maintain a ledger can act as a trusted third party.

They essentially maintain a list of IOUs between their customers.  This is
also what I designed webcredits to be able to do, but with any currency,
and with any type of customer (account, URL, email, telephone etc.)

Bitcoin, however, was designed to be able to act without any TTP so you
have the best of both worlds.


>
>
> Steven Rowat
>
>
>
>