In Five Days, Payments Innovation Will Stop In Silicon Valley

Just a reminder that this ("this" being the California Money Transmission Act) is still happening. I've written about it several times now, but sadly I don't think anyone with serious political influence has been doing much to address the issue. For my part, I've met with my California Assemblyman's staff, called my California State Senator, called the Governor's office, called Congresswoman Anna Eshoo, and met with the California Department of Financial Institutions.

I'm still not sure whether or not my company (which operates https://www.facecash.com) will survive, but regardless, entrepreneurs should be concerned about the impact of regulation on their businesses, not to mention the impact of interchange fees, which affect everyone.

For background, see...

http://www.quora.com/Aaron-Greenspan/In-Fifty-Days-Payments-Innovation-Will-Stop-In-Silicon-Valley

http://www.quora.com/Aaron-Greenspan/In-Thirty-Days-Payments-Innovation-Will-Stop-In-Silicon-Valley

http://www.quora.com/Aaron-Greenspan/Why-Im-Furious-with-Silicon-Valley

And yes, I am pretty furious. I knew about the political risks and I did my homework on the regulations before getting into the payments business, and was told in early 2010 by the CA DFI that the regulations now looming did not apply. Now I'm facing the actual prospect that ten years worth of productive and important work are about to be made suddenly illegal.

Call your California state senators, assemblypeople, and United States Senators and Representatives. We're about to give Visa and MasterCard a monopoly forever.