To me, it seems like arrears is the clear superior option for MVP.
Holding funds adds significant legal complexity for what seems like a
small benefit -- and it's something that we could transition to later
anyway.
Imagine we're doing arrears, because that's the easier way. Then,
because we think the benefits of holding are worth it, we invest in a
lawyer and figure out a legal way to do it. It should be relatively
easy to modify the existing system to simply pay into the arrears
system from the bank account where we're holding funds instead of from
a patron's own credit card.
So we want to offer gift cards? Same deal, or we can partner with a
bank that already offers something like that (similar to
http://www.walmart.com/c/kp/visa-gift-cards -- but more morally
palatable than walmart :P).
The only disadvantage I can see with arrears that absolutely could not
be worked around would be if no payment processor met our moral
standards. Except -- imagine in a few years when snowdrift.coop has
become wildly successful: maybe now it's time to start our own ethical
payment processor (or gnu taler, or ethereum/maidsafe as discussed
elsewhere, is up and running and stable/trusted).
BOTTOM LINE: When comparing a thing that we know will work for us on
launch to a thing that needs further exploration, I need to pick the
former.
Other bottom line: -----------------------------------
_______________________________________________
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@lists.snowdrift.coop
https://lists.snowdrift.coop/mailman/listinfo/discuss
