46 votes

Making your own MSP/payment processor (in response to Itch/Valve)

5 comments

  1. Zorind
    Link
    Saw a link to this blog post on Mastodon regarding the recent payment processor shenanigans facing Itch.io and Valve/Steam. Found it an interesting read, and it helps explain why the situation is...

    Saw a link to this blog post on Mastodon regarding the recent payment processor shenanigans facing Itch.io and Valve/Steam.

    Found it an interesting read, and it helps explain why the situation is as complicated as it is. I did turn “reader” mode on my phone on to make it easier for me to read on mobile.

    8 votes
  2. Wulfsta
    Link
    Good read, now I want to read the crypto rant.

    Good read, now I want to read the crypto rant.

    7 votes
  3. kacey
    Link
    That was a good read! I’ve done a bunch of research into payment systems in general, and I’m glad that my conclusions line up with the author’s — with the exception that it seemed as though...

    That was a good read! I’ve done a bunch of research into payment systems in general, and I’m glad that my conclusions line up with the author’s — with the exception that it seemed as though starting a bank (credit union, really, as the requirements for banks are much more strict) was the best way forward. There are so many middlepeople involved in the modern financial system — as noted by the author — that trying to “fix” several types of problems in it requires tearing large parts of it out; hence the need to incorporate (or use crypto, which probably has most of the same problems).

    7 votes
  4. [2]
    stu2b50
    Link
    There is an option the author didn’t mention: to split your traffic amongst PSPs. Normal transactions go a normal PSP (Stripe, adyen, etc). Porn goes to high risk PSPs (CCBill, etc). On the...

    There is an option the author didn’t mention: to split your traffic amongst PSPs. Normal transactions go a normal PSP (Stripe, adyen, etc). Porn goes to high risk PSPs (CCBill, etc). On the latter, you increase the price by a significant margin to cover the high risk PSP’s margin requirements + higher fees. Sucks for the porn, but is what it is. It mitigates the damage of using high risk PSPs to just what you need it for.

    I’d imagine 99% of what’s sold on itch is fine to go on a normal PSP.

    This is what OnlyFans does, for instance.

    4 votes
    1. riQQ
      Link Parent
      I think they talked about this:

      I think they talked about this:

      What I'm saying is yes, Itch could deal with CCBill or Epoch for porn. It would be a nightmare at every level and they probably can't afford to. Even only sending 18+ game purchases to them, there's giant recurring fees just for the privilege.

      Also there are people I trust who have been around this block, like the Dreamwidth founder who say every high risk MSP ever forbids this practice of split horizon processing.

      10 votes