get underwritten by PayPal

[chadwhitacre]

In gratipay/gratipay.com#63 we saw indications that PayPal would be reluctant to underwrite us. Since then, we've flown under their radar without incident, and in gratipay/gratipay.com#3567 we fell back wholly on PayPal for payouts because it was the only option left to us to survive the Balanced shutdown. The fact that Patreon uses PayPal in a way very similar to us could mean that PayPal is more open now than they were a couple years ago, but still, this is risky for us. Patreon has way more clout than we do, and we have a history of rejection: Stripe, Payoneer (which Patreon also uses), Transpay, Stripe (again), Citizens, and sort-of Zipmark (fizzle-out more than outright rejection). One of these days we're going to get this right! :-)

[chadwhitacre]

On the positive side, since first interacting with PayPal, we have been underwritten explicitly as a third-party payment aggregator (TPPA) by Braintree. Braintree put us on to the challenges associated with TPPAs in the first place, leading to gratipay/gratipay.com#67. They were our next option after Stripe rejected us the first time, but then Balanced came along and we took a three-year detour with them. In the mean time, Braintree was acquired by ... PayPal! So, who knows? Maybe our relationship with Braintree will strengthen our position with PayPal now. :-)

[chadwhitacre]

This is a confusing page. It's PayPal branded, but "powered by Braintree" ... is Bigcommerce a particular product, I guess?

[chadwhitacre]

Some searching prompted by #736 (comment) turns up:

It’s been known for some time that PayPal now requires file-sharing and related services to obtain pre-approval to a set of strict standards, but Soulseek was actually given a questionnaire to complete in order to validate its service with PayPal.

Reproduced in full below, it’s the clearest indication yet that copyright holders are breathing heavily down PayPal’s neck and if they didn’t actually write the questionnaire themselves, they certainly played a massive role in its production.

https://torrentfreak.com/file-sharing-sites-paypal-account-returns-after-eff-intervention-160227/

[chadwhitacre]

We probably need legal help to navigate this process.

[chadwhitacre]

In the mean time, renewed motivation for gratipay/gratipay.com#726, eh @rohitpaulk? 😳

[kaguillera]

😱

P.S. I find myself screaming often these days, why?

[chadwhitacre]

You know too much? :-P