allow merchants and consumers to accept card payments without a conventional merchant account
Isn't that called PayPal? Square is PayPal, but on the iPhone; it doesn't seem hard to understand. And it's surprising that PayPal themselves missed this opportunity, given that they started on the Palm.
My understanding is that PayPal originally was intended to be that and now is the most sophisticated fraud detection and combatment system ever created.
> Just as Napster allowed people to directly share music online, PayPal enables people to exchange money instantly without having to open expensive merchant accounts to accept credit cards. Yet to Levchin's surprise, advanced cryptography has had little to do with PayPal's success. Rather, the company's rapid adoption by millions of small businesses and individuals operating chiefly on Internet auction site eBay is largely credited to Levchin's more recent obsession: developing financial surveillance software that closely monitors PayPal's customers and almost instantly alerts both the company and law enforcement officials to any suspicious account activity. "We mine millions and millions of transactions in real time," Levchin says.
> now is the most sophisticated fraud detection and combatment system ever created.
That's not saying much about fraud detection systems then. Seems like every other day there is some story about someone whose PayPal account was frozen without any chance for appeal or even a solid stated reason as to why it was frozen.
A little bit of selection bias there: you don't read about all the valid transactions that go through, and all the fraudulent transations that get frozen.
Isn't that called PayPal? Square is PayPal, but on the iPhone; it doesn't seem hard to understand. And it's surprising that PayPal themselves missed this opportunity, given that they started on the Palm.