Barriers to entry include, but are not limited to:
1. Building a scalable accounting system that works for merchants and consumers
2. Keeping good enough records to get audited financial statements for as many years as it takes you to build (1)
3. Building mobile applications on 3 or more popular platforms with completely different SDKs
4. Applying for 43 state money transmitter licenses
5. Getting enough money to be able to afford (3) and (4)
6. Complying with the changing USA PATRIOT Act, Bank Secrecy Act, Federal Reserve Bank and U.S. Treasury / FinCEN directives on an ongoing basis while maintaining profitability
7. Convincing people and POS vendors to sign up and develop for a new system en masse...
8. ...without allowing malicious hackers to sign up en masse
9. Not moving so slowly that Apple, Google, PayPal, Visa, MasterCard, Discover, American Express, Intuit, AT&T, Verizon, Sprint or any other startup trying to break into mobile payments can copy you
10. Not moving so quickly that everything breaks, because it can't
1. Building a scalable accounting system that works for merchants and consumers
2. Keeping good enough records to get audited financial statements for as many years as it takes you to build (1)
3. Building mobile applications on 3 or more popular platforms with completely different SDKs
4. Applying for 43 state money transmitter licenses
5. Getting enough money to be able to afford (3) and (4)
6. Complying with the changing USA PATRIOT Act, Bank Secrecy Act, Federal Reserve Bank and U.S. Treasury / FinCEN directives on an ongoing basis while maintaining profitability
7. Convincing people and POS vendors to sign up and develop for a new system en masse...
8. ...without allowing malicious hackers to sign up en masse
9. Not moving so slowly that Apple, Google, PayPal, Visa, MasterCard, Discover, American Express, Intuit, AT&T, Verizon, Sprint or any other startup trying to break into mobile payments can copy you
10. Not moving so quickly that everything breaks, because it can't
It's a hard problem.