[HN Gopher] I hate Stripe, so I'm going to build my own payment ...
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       I hate Stripe, so I'm going to build my own payment processor
        
       Author : lopkeny12ko
       Score  : 44 points
       Date   : 2024-09-02 21:30 UTC (1 hours ago)
        
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 (TXT) w3m dump (old.reddit.com)
        
       | talldayo wrote:
       | One must imagine Sisyphus happy.
        
         | cranberryturkey wrote:
         | how so?
        
           | talldayo wrote:
           | Regression pulls things towards the same point after a long
           | enough time, like gravity pulling a boulder from the top of
           | the mountain to the bottom. Resisting that regression,
           | although pointless, has to be enticing enough or else you
           | would simply give up. So Sisyphus had to have a positive or
           | satisfied mindset to see the meaningless result of his
           | actions and repeat it.
        
       | fragmede wrote:
       | They don't say why the hate Stripe, but presumably Stripe closed
       | their account for fraud/spam/PBL reasons and took "their" money
       | and won't give it to them. Whether or not this person/team
       | succeeds, the real point is that spite is a powerful motivator.
       | We all find motivation, in our own places, in our own ways, and
       | spite is up there.
        
         | hughesjj wrote:
         | Yeah, you nailed it. They claim that their Japanese online
         | Coffee shop was hit by a BIN attack and strip wouldn't let them
         | back in, but didn't exactly give any details
         | 
         | https://old.reddit.com/r/SaaS/comments/1f762xf/i_hate_stripe...
        
         | Ferret7446 wrote:
         | Good luck to them, but this is the "reason" crypto exists. I
         | don't think we need (or can sustain) dozens of payment
         | processors all with their own flavor of politics/dispute
         | resolution quirks.
        
           | bbarnett wrote:
           | Crypto is going no where, as an end user payment option,
           | until consumers can do chargebacks.
           | 
           | There are ways to solve this, but they involve gatekeeping,
           | which of course puts us back at step one.
        
           | Etheryte wrote:
           | I'm not sure this is a convincing take on crypto. At the end
           | of the day, you still need an on ramp and off ramp to deal in
           | it, regardless of whether that's a bank or some other third
           | party. We've already seen multiple times that e.g. certain
           | blockchain assets are blacklisted. If you ever tried to move
           | or cash them, the most likely outcome is a SWAT team at your
           | door once there's a link to your name, similarly any
           | financial institutions or corporations mediating it would
           | face severe punishment. So effectively those assets are
           | fenced off, no one wants the risk, and the end result is not
           | different from regular finance.
        
       | jongjong wrote:
       | These days, it's probably easier to obtain a share of big tech
       | profits by engaging in government regulatory shenanigans than to
       | compete against big tech and 'earn' the same amount of money 'on
       | the free market'.
       | 
       | If I was OP, I would just try to get a job as a financial
       | regulator and create more regulations in exchange for a cushy job
       | after.
        
       | cowsup wrote:
       | They seem against any nay-sayers, so I'll respect that and bite
       | my tongue.
       | 
       | The silver lining is that, their idea (which they later reveal
       | that they "forgot to mention" will also include full banking
       | support and the issuance of cards) is _very_ complicated and will
       | require years of non-stop planning and paperwork before a single
       | customer can be onboarded.
       | 
       | This isn't handing your friend the keys to a jet and letting them
       | fly a plane, this is your friend wanting to enroll in pilot
       | school. It's good to try, and, if you realize it's not for you,
       | there's nobody harmed as a result.
        
       | memset wrote:
       | Stripe used to have really simple docs: paste in some js, paste
       | in some example code on the backend, and you're good to go.
       | 
       | Now it's really really confusing. Payment intents are confusing.
       | Figuring out which part of the docs I need is confusing. Figuring
       | out the limitations of the self hosted checkout pages is
       | confusing. The pricing is confusing. There's narrative for one-
       | click checkout that is comparable to PayPal (I guess there is
       | "link" but seems like a separate thing?)
       | 
       | Give me a thing I can copy and paste. Give me a hosted
       | subscription management page.
       | 
       | Finding a way to allow legal businesses to operate would be huge,
       | though my impression is that you get yanked around by banks a
       | lot.
       | 
       | Don't nickle and dime me on features. Make it easy to get reports
       | out.
        
         | m11a wrote:
         | Although I agree with all the issues you raise, I think the
         | confusing nature of the pricing is by design.
         | 
         | Stripe's fee model probably makes serious bank, because it's
         | quite non-transparent and basically nothing is provided for
         | free. Want even the slightest extra feature? +1% of your
         | revenue (and repeat)
        
           | bbarnett wrote:
           | Ah, the "we're out of ideas and have nothing, time to squeeze
           | until the company dies, to chase stock price" phase of a
           | business.
           | 
           | Like your cable company!
        
           | lotsofpulp wrote:
           | > Stripe's fee model probably makes serious bank, because
           | it's quite non-transparent and basically nothing is provided
           | for free.
           | 
           | Whatever it is making, it is apparently not enough to IPO. I
           | would temper my expectations.
        
             | brezelgoring wrote:
             | I'd say it's not enough to satisfy early investors, who
             | probably want a 10~50x return before IPO. They could
             | definitely go public if they wanted to, and do 'well'.
        
             | Crespyl wrote:
             | Does Stripe _need_ to IPO? Are they just privately held, or
             | do they have VCs or others that need to be paid back?
        
             | 0cf8612b2e1e wrote:
             | You can make plenty of money and still be private. Look at
             | Steam.
        
           | danpalmer wrote:
           | It's worth noting that most customers with any volume will be
           | on custom contracts that will either be cheaper, include more
           | features, or both. At my previous workplace we had this with
           | relatively modest revenue and would renegotiate every year or
           | two.
        
         | pier25 wrote:
         | Stripe has both hosted checkout and subscription management
         | pages.
        
       | TheSmoke wrote:
       | In case they need to figure out what exactly they need to do:
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30650828
        
       | egypturnash wrote:
       | seven years from now, this person will have become _everything
       | they hate_ about current payment processing methods.
        
       | kulahan wrote:
       | Didn't the creator of stripe have it written in like, a few
       | months? Iirc, he spent years dealing with regulations, not tech
       | issues.
        
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       (page generated 2024-09-02 23:00 UTC)