Comment by ArtWomb | Hacker News Reader

Comment by ArtWomb | Hacker News Reader

PayPal's Technical FAQ from Oct '99 (cobbled in response to a Slashdot post haha) demonstrates how ahead of the game they were: use of ECC (with tech advice from Stanford's Dan Boneh & Martin Hellman), privacy policy that prohibited sale of user data to 3rd party advertisers, generating cash via "the float" in a Merrill Lynch Money Market Fund, etc.

https://web.archive.org/web/19991012084438/http://paypal.com...

But I think it's probably the "synergy" with eBay that was the biggest surprise. I recall having a neighbor at that time who sold old movie posters. Rather than driving around the country to comic book conventions, he was able to do more in one month in online auctions than the past decades he had been collecting. That was the great awakening. PayPal went from "college kids requesting cash from parents" to trading rare sports memorabilia with instant clearing by March 2000.

>>> If you needed to integrate with an outside vendor, you picked up the phone yourself and called; you didn’t wait for a BD person to become available. You did (the first version of) mockups and wireframes yourself; you didn’t wait for a designer to become available. You wrote (the first draft of) site copy yourself; you didn’t wait for a content writer.

"You must unlearn what you have learned" ;)

The synergy with Ebay was definitely what drove the business. What's interesting is they we positioned to be Venmo, but dropped the ball and had to buy them. I suspect that failure was part of the motivation behind the Paypal/Ebay split, but looking at Ebay's current strategy, the synergy was still there, so maybe they threw the baby out with the bathwater.

> Rather than driving around the country to comic book conventions, he was able to do more in one month in online auctions than the past decades he had been collecting.

I personally try not to collect things, but for those who do, I wonder if this ruined the hobby because of instant gratification.

I would assume it replaced it with the anticipation as the item makes its way to you?

I do collect books. No, it didn't ruin the hobby and most collectors would agree. eBay allow me to search for books without having to travel to different countries, or whatever. I can buy books what it wouldn't be possible without eBay.

For people who doesn't collect, may look like that, because they may think that going into eBay could ruin the fun, because everything is easy to get now. It isn't. You need to learn tricks and also, how to win over other collectors who may see the same item that you did.

As a former collector, I can only disagree. The hunt was interesting, but looking at a computer and spending money just doesn’t do it for me. At the same time it made the fun parts of the hobby feel pointless which just killed all the joy.

From the FAQ: "What happens when you break your Palm™ organizer or 'accidentally' do a hard reset? Do you lose all your money?"

Now in the age of bitcoin this could have a very different answer. In any case, the FAQ is very interesting.

And now, eBay is moving to accept more payments outside of PayPal.

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