Has Facebook quietly released their Payment system? "Altcoin" like competitor?

[PaulyC]

Xpost from Reddit..   
I have no idea what to make of it.

http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/2pvpfr/facebook_new_terms_update_for_2015_why_did_nobody/

[tokeweed]

prolly creating their own system to compete with apple pay. 

[unent]

prolly creating their own system to compete with apple pay. 

Is apple pay getting popular at all? I remember the fanfare when it was introduced then news of a double spend problem, if memory serves me correctly, Since then I have heard nothing about it.

If facebook is making their own apple pay competitor it might not be very popular. Considering the amount of information they want to gather from users it might be a flop.

[Sumerian]

I hear no one about it either, but then again I do not know many people with an iPhone 5s or 6 except for myself. I can't even use apple pay here yet.

[tokeweed]

prolly creating their own system to compete with apple pay.  

Is apple pay getting popular at all? I remember the fanfare when it was introduced then news of a double spend problem, if memory serves me correctly, Since then I have heard nothing about it.

If facebook is making their own apple pay competitor it might not be very popular. Considering the amount of information they want to gather from users it might be a flop.

prolly exactly why fb thinks it can do better in the online payments space.

it might be a flop, sure. but then again, they could pretty much pull something off in a big way.

edit:  or maybe they're gonna be the next billion dollar outfit to accept bitcoin after microsoft.  it's a maybe but not farfetched.

OR they could use stellar.   stellar wallet activation is done via fb. but it's a long shot.  i do not think stellar is ready.

[tokeweed]

one question tho..  are the collison brothers (of stripe) good friends with mark zuckerberg?

[xmasdobo]

Facebook is going to make itself look moronic the more it takes to accept Bitcoin payments at this point.

[tokeweed]

Facebook is going to make itself look moronic the more it takes to accept Bitcoin payments at this point.

if ever fb plans to accept/use crypto currency payments, it has to be BTC, moronic or not.  they're too big to care now.

but they would even look more moronic if they accept a random altcoin, if that's what you are implying.

[Este Nuno]

How could anyone think this has anything to do with cryptocurrency at all? A "Buy" button implies nothing other than that people will be able to purchase things through facebook via traditional methods.

[tokeweed]

How could anyone think this has anything to do with cryptocurrency at all? A "Buy" button implies nothing other than that people will be able to purchase things through facebook via traditional methods.

that was my first thought.  but then i read the terms-update:

"Make purchases more convenient: In some regions, we're testing a Buy button that helps people discover and purchase products without leaving Facebook. We're also working on new ways to make transactions even more convenient."

kinda makes you think there's something else going on. 

[DarkhorseofNxt]

probably stellar.

[tokeweed]

probably stellar.

that crossed my mind. but that is so far off.  the word "stellar" just came in my mind cos stellar wallets are activated via fb.  so for a second i thought.. maybe...  but, nah.

[tokeweed]

did a little reading.  this is not something new.  here's an article written last september:

Facebook Is Partnering With Stripe to Power “Buy” Button

http://recode.net/2014/09/25/facebook-is-partnering-with-stripe-to-power-buy-button/

so yeah, it's highly possible it's BTC:

"In March 2014, CEO Patrick Collison announced that Stripe would support Bitcoin transactions. The announcement included that Stripe would automatically calculate costs incurred for customers in Bitcoin in comparison to their local currency, and that payments would be delivered to bank accounts within seven days.  The charges for these transactions were not yet announced. Stripe also announced plans to process payments via Automated Clearing House, which would allow merchants to set up payments against a customer's bank account in the United States."

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stripe_(company)

[DarkhorseofNxt]

so it's btc then. interesting.

[tokeweed]

so it's btc then. interesting.

did a little more reading, and check this out.  it's a blog from greg brockman, CTO of stripe and an advisor at the stellar foundation:

Stellar

Since Stripe's earliest days, we've believed the world needs simpler and more open protocols for moving money. We launched our Bitcoin beta four months ago, and we recently published some of our thoughts around cryptocurrencies. Today, we're excited to see the launch of Stellar, a new open-source project and nonprofit organization to which we've provided seed funding.

Stellar is (like Bitcoin) a decentralized payment network; unlike Bitcoin, it supports transactions in arbitrary currencies—you can use dollars, Euros, bitcoins, or anything else. Stellar implements something very close to the idealized "IP layer for money" idea that we described last week. You can find more details (and obtain your first "stellars", the network's native currency) by reading their launch post.

Development is led by Jed McCaleb and Professor David Mazières in collaboration with a small team of others. (The technology is based on the open-source Ripple project, originally created by Jed a few years ago.)

Stripe's role

Stellar's goal is to build a great transport layer for transmitting monetary value. Figuring out how to efficiently move money is something we support very strongly: Stripe spends a lot of effort integrating different banking and finance protocols in various countries (17 at last count). We've always considered it unlikely that these systems would be just as fragmented in twenty years. Bitcoin has already changed the world by drawing attention to the value of open, distributed protocols that enable the transmission and storage of money. Stellar aims to advance this success by providing a way to transact in one's currency of choice, whether that currency is fiat or digital.

https://stripe.com/blog/stellar

It is also known that stripe loaned the stellar foundation 3m USD as seed capital, and that patrick collison, stripe's CEO is also a board member of that foundation.

so maybe stellar might play a role in it as well?

[Bit_Happy]

so it's btc then. interesting.

did a little more reading, and check this out.  it's a blog from greg brockman, CTO of stripe and an advisor at the stellar foundation:

Stellar

Since Stripe's earliest days, we've believed the world needs simpler and more open protocols for moving money. We launched our Bitcoin beta four months ago, and we recently published some of our thoughts around cryptocurrencies. Today, we're excited to see the launch of Stellar, a new open-source project and nonprofit organization to which we've provided seed funding.

Stellar is (like Bitcoin) a decentralized payment network; unlike Bitcoin, it supports transactions in arbitrary currencies—you can use dollars, Euros, bitcoins, or anything else. Stellar implements something very close to the idealized "IP layer for money" idea that we described last week. You can find more details (and obtain your first "stellars", the network's native currency) by reading their launch post.

Development is led by Jed McCaleb and Professor David Mazières in collaboration with a small team of others. (The technology is based on the open-source Ripple project, originally created by Jed a few years ago.)

Stripe's role

Stellar's goal is to build a great transport layer for transmitting monetary value. Figuring out how to efficiently move money is something we support very strongly: Stripe spends a lot of effort integrating different banking and finance protocols in various countries (17 at last count). We've always considered it unlikely that these systems would be just as fragmented in twenty years. Bitcoin has already changed the world by drawing attention to the value of open, distributed protocols that enable the transmission and storage of money. Stellar aims to advance this success by providing a way to transact in one's currency of choice, whether that currency is fiat or digital.

https://stripe.com/blog/stellar

It is also known that stripe loaned the stellar foundation 3m USD as seed capital, and that patrick collison, stripe's CEO is also a board member of that foundation.

so maybe stellar might play a role in it as well?

Thanks, for finding that, it is the first I heard of Stellar and their native "stellars". This one could gain some traction, especially if it is more user friendly than Ripple.

[DarkhorseofNxt]

It is actually making sense, stellar was given away for free via Facebook so probably they were testing the system out since there are close to 1 billion fb account I think.

[tokeweed]

bit_happy, not sure about all of that totally, and it's never good to assume.  just doing some "detective work" and sharing my thoughts to fight boredom.  

imho, i do not think stellar is ready. especially when they had a problem in the network with the ledger fork:  https://www.stellar.org/blog/safety_liveness_and_fault_tolerance_consensus_choice/

[Raeg]

prolly creating their own system to compete with apple pay. 

Is apple pay getting popular at all? I remember the fanfare when it was introduced then news of a double spend problem, if memory serves me correctly, Since then I have heard nothing about it

Double spend from ApplePay? Isn't it just some sort of new fiat payment processor. Other existing ones don't have this issue do they? I thought it was just digital money that did?

[tokeweed]

does anyone have the fb 'buy' button enabled in their account?  just wondering...