RE: P2P Payments

Hey folks - long time, no talk,

I'm not sure I totally understand what you by "My guess is that none of these are based on standard web technology because this technology simply isn't up to such tasks". Current payment networks run on established protocols and are bound to remote, private, proprietary datastores and services. It's not that the web technologies (or more generally: open source, web-accessible technologies) "aren't up to the task", it's that you're faced with basically 2 choices:

1) Create a broad interface that strings together everything needed to transact payments between all the existing sources and services, then hope everyone in a huge ecosystem of non-standard, non-interoperable payments makes it happen.

2) Integrate an open source, web-accessible value transmission protocol into UAs that leaps beyond existing, proprietary sources.

#1 is hard, it's damn hard.

#2 is a long-game option, but we could start today if we accepted that we should deal with legacy and emerging, trustless payment systems as separate initiatives.

Warning - I'm going to say it: We could propose UAs integrate code that understands how to deal with blockchains (in general), then create a set of APIs that make payments over these newer mediums a snap for developers.

***ducks***

The fact of the matter is we have a standard, open protocol for worldwide payments today, and that's Bitcoin (gasp). Is it adopted by the majority of consumers yet? No. Will it ever be? I don't know. What I do know is:

- It could provide value to developers today
- It's a far more attainable goal
- It's right there waiting for people to use it

Why not take a shot at this?

- Daniel

________________________________
From: Anders Rundgren [anders.rundgren.net@gmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, December 03, 2014 11:48 PM
To: Web Payments CG
Subject: P2P Payments


P2P payments are established in many places in the world.  My guess is that none of these are based on standard web technology because this technology simply isn't up to such tasks; it will take many years to get on par with "Apps", if even possible.

It is sad but the web is lagging and the lag is increasing due to the success of Android and iOS.

Anders (on Android)