Stripe releases Plaid-like project, Plaid CEO objects to process | Hacker News Reader

Stripe releases Plaid-like project, Plaid CEO objects to process

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53 pointsrreichman15 comments

If you’re in the fintech industry, you probably shouldn’t be surprised that Stripe wants to compete with you. They’re getting into every vertical. Either Plaid was irresponsible and actually shared sensitive info w a possible competitor (I doubt it) or they’re just trying to derail a competitor’s launch.

Thoughts? How is this ok? Seems super shady to me.

Unless I'm mistaken, Stripe has a history of behaving this way.

It's cheap, dirty, and rather nasty.

They've have a great core product since the beginning, no doubt. Despite this, I can't get onboard with the philosophy or tactics employed, leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

This sort of culture is very difficult or even impossible to change, it's part of the corporate identity instilled by the founding team. For examples, consider Microsoft, Google, Uber. The core identity of the founders doesn't really change. Maybe a bandaid here and there, but hoping for more is a waste of time.

I want to post a correction. If you know of examples where Stripe behaved poorly, please do chime in.

I was thinking of:

"Stripe hiring issues make some lose job offers"

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29403976

As for the clone stamping, I think I was confused, and I'm sorry. There was some prior drama with the Bolt founder claiming Stripe was colluding against them. This was false.

It seems an error on my part, an honest one but still incorrect. Sorry, again.

You can post their C&D. There's no need to backtrack.

That's not the standard I hold myself to.

I wish the Stripe team all the best, especially if they're playing by the rules. Their product has been top notch since almost the very beginning, which is remarkable. I'm actually relieved to be wrong! Prefer spreading positivity.

Google became evil, and Uber stayed evil while Microsoft has fled toward open source divination.

Nothing you said is supported by those examples.

Actually, Plaid CEO looks much more shady after Jay's response.

Here: https://twitter.com/jay_ssh/status/1521973965098561536

Plaid CEO said vaguely that Jay interviewed them.

Jay responded that it was a job interview 8y ago before he joined stripe. He simply was looking for a job...

Jay said that all the meetings they had with Plaid in the past few years were all initiated by Plaid.

Jay started working on this product in 2020.

Jay sent RFP to Plaid in order to get them to be a service provider like MX. Plaid refused to be a partner. Plaid knew Stripe was working on this, and CEO still acted surprised???

Plaid CEO is intentionally vague about "interview" and "RFP". Because if he went into details, it would have not caused controversies.

Plaid CEO seems to have very low ethics here. Intentionally and maliciously misleading.

No surprise Plaid doesn't respond to Jay's tweets anymore.

Plumbing manufacturer objects to other pipes. Seems legit.

Everyone clutching their pearls while trying to become the new incumbents. Plaid attempted to innovate against commercial banks not offering a more streamlined permissioning system (the EU legislated it with PSD2), Stripe is playing catch up, and eventually we'll come full circle and commercial banks will offer this.

(Capital One, Chase, Wells Fargo, BoA, Citi, PNC, and USAA already offer some form of OAuth)

It maybe unethical but not illegal. Plaid CEO just got played haha!

Great, another product to warn everyone non-technical against. Never give your bank login to anyone. Ever. Seriously! Do not do it! By definition they must be stored reversibly-encrypted. They will leak, they will be decrypted! Do not do it!

I agree but what do you mean by " definition they must be stored reversibly-encrypted"?

This service will log in to your bank on your behalf to scrape the site, since not all banks have APIs. This means they will store your bank login and password somewhere. Store in a way that they can decrypt it so they ... you know ... can login on your behalf occasionally to scape the latest data. If they can decrypt it, so can whoever steals their database.

The Plaid founder responded here on HN:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31263005

Reply on news.ycombinator.com