Re: decentralized wallets and payment processors

On 2015-04-29 16:28, Dave Raggett wrote:
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>> On 29 Apr 2015, at 15:46, Joseph Potvin <jpotvin@opman.ca <mailto:jpotvin@opman.ca>> wrote:
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>> RE: [DRaggett] "That would seem to be very different from the personal wallet with multiple payment instruments that the W3C Web Payments IG is chartered to work on."
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>> The W3C Payments IG works on negotiating a common specification for the interface between wallet systems and the payments systems, no? That's to say, the interface only, nothing beyond that.
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> Pretty much. The idea is to encourage competition and innovation through minimal standards on the interfaces.

the only fly in the soup is that the IG does not have access to innovation on the browser-side which puts the IG in a very disadvantaged position compared to Google.  That is, the IG will meet the same brickwall as the smart card folks recently did:
https://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-web-security/2015Feb/0034.html

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>> Another couple of questions:
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>> Is a bank account a type of digital wallet?
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> I wouldn’t consider it as such, but other people’s interpretation may vary.
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>> Does the provider of any e-wallet SaaS come under banking laws & regs?
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> I guess it depends upon what the wallet is doing. If the wallet provides a level playing field for payment instruments and acts transparently, then presumably the onus is on the payment instruments, e.g. to notify large payments to the appropriate authorities. However, it would be interesting to hear from experts in the corresponding laws and regulations.
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>> If the answer to either of these question is "no", what are the boundary criteria between e-wallet systems/services and banking systems/services?
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> One possibility is that wallets hold payment instruments but not currency accounts.  Loyalty schemes could complicate this given that vouchers and loyalty points have a value, but are not equivalent to currency in that they aren’t exchangeable in the way that cash is.  It would be interesting to hear from financial experts on this.
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>    Dave Raggett <dsr@w3.org <mailto:dsr@w3.org>>
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