[beebs93]

I'm doubtful browser vendors could ever properly encapsulate the various international payment use cases behind their abstraction, but I would love to be proven wrong.

Bank accounts (ACH/SEPA), EU's relatively recent push for MFA for credit card transactions, India's mandate overall for MFA, China's gov't regulations around customer payment data not leaving the GCF, validation of China Union Pay cards in North America, etc., are all complex instruments/workflows that are no small feat to handle and handle well.

[koonsolo]

I don't want to be "that guy", but this is an ideal use case for a certain cryptocurrency that has 0 fees and instant transactions (not gonna say which because of the downvotes).

Instead of facing a paywall for a yearly subscription, you pay around $0.005 to read an article. But with a currenncy that anyone can own and can really handle micropayments.

[hombre_fatal]

The problem with any sort of alt-currency whether it's Flattr points or some cryptocoin is that it's always going to have the insurmountable barrier of indirection that ensures it's never going to have more than the fraction of hard-core users that are willing to buy into it. Signing up with Flattr or Coinbase to even access these alt-currencies is such a showstopper when we need a solution that can go mainstream.

I think the only solution that has a shot is enabling and improving the UX of spending plain ol' USD with the same motion we thoughtlessly buy groceries.

For example, a specific low overhead micropayment channel. It's kind of silly to pay the full cost of things like refund ability and fraud protection on a $0.005 purchase.

Without this, I don't see how micropayments will ever be a thing.

People often bring up the mental overhead of a la carte pricing for things like individual Netflix shows vs $12/mo. But I think they're also looking at it through the lens of the current world where you can't even price something below $1 if you're going to accept anything other than cash.

[AdieuToLogic]

Cryptocurrencies do not address what @beebs93 accurately describes as:

> ... complex instruments/workflows that are no small feat to handle and handle well.

Cryptocurrencies are, by definition, currencies. Just like other ones, they do not address what commerce workflows exist to satisfy.

And as to "0 fees and instant transactions" argument...

That's all fine and dandy until a purchase is contested. At that point, the lack of a third-party which arbitrates between the merchant and customer, with legally binding consumer advocation mandated, will become painfully obvious.

[bdcravens]

Pretty sure you'll get downvoted whether it's BTC, BCH, BSV, ETH, etc. HN isn't cryptocurrency-friendly.

None of these are viable outside of crypto-advocates.

[pbreit]

Those payment methods and countries with silly regulations will get left behind.

[why-oh-why]

“Left behind” i.e. this API will work for USA only. Don’t be silly. The point of browser APIs is that they work for all/most, if it’s only Apple Pay and Google Pay they solve nothing.

[beebs93]

Heh, when I started working in the payments space, I had fleeting moments early on where I caught myself thinking something similar.

I soon realized, however, head-in-the-sanding the other current use cases and their complexities would be an amateur mistake.