[Mac_crypto] Re: Peppercoin Raises $4 Million in First Round Funding, Appoints CEO

[Nicko van Someren]

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

---------------------------------------------------------------------
The Cryptography Mailing List
Unsubscribe by sending "unsubscribe cryptography" to majordomo at metzdowd.com