Kings of Code Conference #kingsofcode

This week I went to the Kings of Code Conference, to “explore and discuss the latest trends, developments and best practices in web and mobile development technologies.” It included a hackbattle, lots of presentations and free beer.

HackBattle

Freehand, Amazon and eBay #stealth #startup

This is the first freehand unscheduled post in a while. And as such contains ramblings and general musings.

I was looking on eBay today, as I was searching for hardware needed by a client without funding and a light wallet. I was comparing the prices to the list prices for the RFQ and saw a Cisco Certification book offered for $4.95 (Intn’l shipping $12.99). I obviously looked at Amazon, and it was being offered there for $2.07 (No intn’l shipping).

I realized that for somebody, such as me, who wanted to make profit in the margins and had an application which bought the popular/profitable eBay/Amazon items from Amazon and sold them on eBay. That person could have the money charged to the company PayPal account and use this money to recharge the company creditcard.

As usual, this is something that I haven’t build, or tested.

From e-Gold to Payment Systems (Update) #finance

I reported earlier about e-Gold, Security Focus is now reporting that E-Gold pleads guilty to money laundering.

technorati tags: finance, bank, payment, paypal, financial

Leverage PayPal

Squire-Org‘s Alexander Hay posted a nice post on leveraging PayPal‘s other features. PayPal has other services besides the payment system you may already know.

Firstly they offer a Mastercard debit card that can be issued in the name of non-US residents. The advantage is that it can be used as a regular credit card, without incuring credit card charges. PayPal also offers the feature of managing multiple foreign currency accounts. This can be used to avoid charges associated with exchanging money. And it can be used for all your eBay transactions.

As Hay says: “PayPal, if properly integrated into your asset protection structure, can add convenience to your system.”

technorati tags: paypal, creditcard, debitcard

From e-Gold to Payment Systems

I was reading the article e-Gold Founders Face Prison for Money Laundering on Mashable, and watching JAG reruns, I started wondering what the payment alternatives are.

First I’ll go through the list that was published earlier on Mashable here. The only ones that seem to be dead are eHotPay.com, FastCash.com, LibertyDollars.org, Netpay.com (Search Engine Trap), paychest.com (became flushaway.com, I prefer the Mooncup), payingfast.com, Postepay.com, Qchex.com (Under preliminary injunction from FTC) and sendmoneyorder.com

They missed iDeal, the Dutch system which is based on the knowledge collected when the Dutch banks had their own deals with PayPal. At that time PayPal was so full of holes that it never would have passed European Banking Regulations.