Re: The Payments Architecture within which a Web Payments Architecture occurs

On 05/14/2015 11:23 PM, Melvin Carvalho wrote:
> Code tends to leads laws in this area, and likely regulations will 
> evolve in line with the value propositions

This. Code is law[1]. Regulations and formal law are reactionary beasts.

To be clear, the WPIG in no way, shape, or form is going to do something
that willfully violates known regulations. In fact, there has been a
steady drum-beat of making sure that the Web Payments Architecture can
automate a great deal of the regulatory activity in order to make
writing code for payments less risky for all parties involved
(developers included).

In general, W3C Working Groups care about solving real problems, real
interoperability, technical excellence, and serving the needs of
everyone that uses the Web. Theoretical architectural concerns, legal
theory, and regulatory theory rarely enter the discussion unless it's
clear that not thinking about them is going to create a deployment problem.

Deployments and uptake matter. The laws and regulations sort themselves
out over time. This group, in particular, has gone to great lengths to
broadcast what we're doing in places like the UN Internet Governance
Forum. We have lawyers involved in the work we're doing now, so
it's not like we're flying blind.

We should be very careful about suggesting that we put something in the
critical path, like waiting on changes in UNCITRAL or ITU, to make
progress. If the creation of the Web took that path, none of us would be
having the conversation we're having today.

-- manu

[1] http://harvardmagazine.com/2000/01/code-is-law-html

-- 
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 Friday, 15 May 2015 04:05:17 UTC