[14255] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Re: [Mac_crypto] Re: Peppercoin Raises $4 Million in First Round Funding, Appoints CEO
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Nicko van Someren)
Tue Sep 23 22:41:13 2003
X-Original-To: cryptography@metzdowd.com
X-Original-To: cryptography@metzdowd.com
Date: Wed, 24 Sep 2003 03:29:23 +0100
Cc: cryptography@metzdowd.com, e$@vmeng.com
To: mac_crypto@vmeng.com
From: Nicko van Someren <nicko@ncipher.com>
In-Reply-To: <p0600200abb96a13cb42b@[66.149.49.6]>
On Wednesday, Sep 24, 2003, at 02:18 Europe/London, Adam L Beberg wrote:
>> Rivest and Micali's microcheque protocol gets a ducat-download.
>>
>> Next stop an IPO -- and then an eBay buyout... ;-).
>
> Hahaha... "about 7 percent per transaction" - NOT mentioned on the
> website anywhere, I had to look in a Wired article - we call that an
> "F*** the merchant" rate folks, even AMEX isn't that high.
I think you'll find that when the transaction value is small the
merchant rates from all the credit card companies are substantially
higher than that. It's common for the marginal merchant rate to be on
the order of 2-4% for online transactions but there is usually a base
charge of 25 cents or more as well as the marginal rate. On a $2
charge for a song the merchant could well be paying more than 30 cents
in fees, which is more than double the rate for Peppercoin.
> Windows only. Interface software is NOT open source.
This is a severe limitation if you're trying to sell to people on this
mailing list but it covers a large fraction of the market by value. I
would expect to see a Mac client too soon, thereby covering more than
99% by value of their target market. I doubt you'll see open source
interface software and I doubt that their market will care.
> Oh, and they are used by 6 merchants. VISA is soooooo scared,
> oooooooooooo.
To push a technology like this into even 6 merchants before you've got
proper funding for your company is not bad. That said, I have no doubt
that they will ever scare Visa and I have no doubt they they never
intended to.
Nicko
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