[Opensim-dev] Micropayment

[Aldon Hynes]

Ezekiel, et al.,

   I agree that it is not the scope of this project to develop or manage a
banking system.  I believe that if OpenSim is properly architected, people
creating OpenSim based grids will be able to determine if and how their
grids will interconnect with an intergrid banking system.  That said, there
will need to be safeguards in place to make sure that the currency of a grid
is robust and secure.  The reason I brought this up in the first place was
surrounding the issue of authentication.  You need to be authenticated to
have access to the monetary system of any grid.  If anyone can easily create
money in a given grid, then the value of currency from that grid will be
worthless.

   Likewise, I do believe that these sort of transactions should, as a
general rule, be handled off-world.  The one caveat is that, at least in
Second Life, if I try to pay someone more than I currently have, I'm given
the option of purchasing more Linden Dollars in world.  This would seem to
be a useful feature to have in other grids.

   I do not know enough about the risk api of Linden Labs to give concrete
suggestions, but it does seem as if the existing LL commands work pretty
well for it.  I'm not sure if the standard XML format for communicating
between vendor and payment providers is sufficiently described already in
the risk api.

   I am curious about the insecurity of LLGiveMoney.  It seems as if the
real issue is if money in a given grid has any meaning.  If it does
LLGiveMoney is a secure and important part of in world transactions.

   On a more general note, I've been fairly involved with the banks and
stock exchanges in Second Life.  Generally speaking, they keep their
accounting information offline.  One bank is talking about using a gold
standard for banking.  If I recall properly, currently milligram of gold
costs about six Linden Dollars in the SL Adult grid.  Banks existing beyond
the scope of a specific grid are logical places for currency exchange.  I
would love to be able to pay an ATM in SL in Linden Dollars, and then
withdraw that money from an ATM in DeepGrid Dollars in the DeepGrid.  The
tools for that are pretty much handled by existing money events.  The only
problem is that the other grids need to have a secure monetary system where
money cannot be arbitrarily created.

   My two Lindens, other thoughts are appreciated.

Aldon


  -----Original Message-----
  From: opensim-dev-bounces at lists.berlios.de
[mailto:opensim-dev-bounces at lists.berlios.de]On Behalf Of
ezekiel at daelindor.com
  Sent: Sunday, November 11, 2007 3:02 PM
  To: opensim-dev at lists.berlios.de
  Subject: [Opensim-dev] Micropayment


  Aldon,

  I agree that the availability of micropayment is a critical success
factor. In my view, it would be a honorable undertaking to implement the
technical base for micropayment because this would allow many people,
especially in developing countries, to open up their own small businesses.
However, I think it is not in the scope of this project to develop and
manage a currency or implement a banking system.

  In my view, the is only one easy way to implement payment: Do it
off-world: The in-world vendor specifies the web address of a payment
provider. Upon payment, a remote data channel to the provider is established
and a browser window to the provider is opened on the user's PC. The user
pays through secure html. The vendor is notified on the remote channel when
the transaction is complete.

  What needs to be done to implement this ?
  - create a standard XML format for the communication between vendor and
payment provider.
  - Implement an LL command like 'LLRequestPayment' that opens the browser
at a specified web address and sends payment information to the provider.
  - Accept provider payment notification through 'money' event.
  - Since client based payment (prim payment) cannot be supported without
additional parameters, it should be disabled. LLGiveMoney is also useless
because
  it is not secure.

  Would this be OK ?

  Ezekiel
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