- From: Manu Sporny <msporny@digitalbazaar.com>
- Date: Tue, 04 Nov 2014 23:30:47 -0500
- To: Web Payments CG <public-webpayments@w3.org>
On 11/02/2014 03:15 AM, Nate Otto wrote: > I always thought of loyalty cards as a stores offering me deals in > exchange for being able to connect my purchases together through an > identity, even if I pay with cash. I bet they'll be used in the same > way even if the store isn't able to discern as much about the > ultimate source of the funds used. The PaySwarm stuff is modeling loyalty cards as just another credential that you provide before a transaction happens. When a store receives that credential, they can provide a new discounted offer to you. How you pay for that offer of sale is orthogonal. From a technical standpoint, this creates a nice separation of concerns. Each problem neatly in its own space. It is also arguable that there are two basic types of loyalty cards. The first type gives you a flat discount on certain products. The second type actually accrues and stores "points", which operate as a form of currency. This latter one came up a few times at last weeks W3C TPAC Web Payments IG meeting. I'd argue that you really only need the first type of loyalty card. Modeling "points" as a currency isn't very useful unless you have an ecosystem for that currency... and most loyalty cards are attempting lock-in, not an ecosystem. The PaySwarm stuff supports both, but models them in very different ways. The first type is a credential, the second type is a currency (which requires stored value of some kind). -- manu -- Manu Sporny (skype: msporny, twitter: manusporny, G+: +Manu Sporny) Founder/CEO - Digital Bazaar, Inc. blog: The Marathonic Dawn of Web Payments http://manu.sporny.org/2014/dawn-of-web-payments/
Received on Wednesday, 5 November 2014 04:31:16 UTC