[w3c/webpayments-payment-apps-api] What is a Payment App? (#105)

So this is something that we've discussed a lot, but looking at comments in our recent threads, I still don't feel we quite have agreement on this definition. I would really like to nail down exactly what a Payment App is. I would really *not* like to end up shipping a Payment App API specification, where the term "Payment App" is not clearly defined, and everyone ends up having a different interpretation. This, I think, would make things extremely confusing for anyone who tries to read the specification and figure out how everything fits together.

Looking back a bit, we started out with a Payment App being some loosely defined thing, which the mediator could communicate with using HTTP or Javascript -- we couldn't really decide which one. Then @adamroach saved the day, and proposed the Service Worker based approach, which I think everyone agreed was a huge improvement. It turned out though, that saying "A Payment App is a Service Worker" sounded very strange to many, so I think most of us have agreed that it would be better to say something like "A Payment App uses Service Workers to handle payments". But then what *is* a Payment App?

I have argued for using the definition "A Payment App is a Web App that can do payments", because I think people will instantly understand this definition. However, this definition requires that we have a clear definition of "Web App". I think most people understand "Web App", as the collection of web pages that are related to a particular Web App Manifest. I think most people think of a "Web App" as the thing you can install to the home screen of your phone if you're on a page that links to such a manifest.

An advantage of my proposed definition is that the relationship between Native Payment Apps and Web Based Payment Apps becomes very straight-forward. Everyone knows what a Native App is (it's the thing you install from the app store, and that shows up as an icon on the home screen of your phone). But what is the web equivalent of this? It's the [(Progressive) Web App](https://developers.google.com/web/progressive-web-apps/).

I would be very interested in hearing other potential definitions of "Payment App", and the advantages and disadvantages of those.

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