FastSpring Risk Screening | Hacker News Reader

FastSpring Risk Screening

mjtsai.com

34 pointskruuuder20 comments

After ten years using fastspring with no issues and decent sales volume, I received the same email. I categorically refuse to KYC by uploading a picture of my passport and allowing some algorithm to scan my face, and being asked to pay for the privilege is especially insulting. I allows my account to terminate. It remains to be seen whether they will keep my last two weeks of revenue also.

I switched to Stripe for billing, where apparently I do not need to undergo such KYC. I expect that won't last forever, and don't know how long I can go on hopping services without uploading a passport photo.

Modern KYC is an insanely invasive process carried out through insane methods, and I wish I saw it getting more pushback. Online ID verification should be done through zero knowledge proofs, if at all.

Its not clear the point you are making here.

If you are saying "I should not undergo KYC", then I'm afraid that boat sailed a long time ago. Be realistic. It is a necessary burden for both the customer and the provider.

If you are saying "don't scan my face", then sadly you also have to be realistic because sadly $bad_guys have made "liveness" tests a necessity.

Zero knowledge proofs might (eventually) be an option for the document-upload side, but is unlikely to ever be a solution to the "liveness" side.

The point being made is that no, the boat has not sailed. It is not necessary. Your version of reality is one of submission.

You cannot comply your way out of tyranny.

Similarly, you cannot wish yourself out of reality.

I think you missed the point. There are multiple realities, and you can choose which one to inhabit.

A lot of people only see one reality, which is unfortunate.

Edit: Minds on HN even simpler than I thought. Time for bed.

I think you missed the point. There is one reality, and you can’t choose to avoid it.

A lot of people say they can pick their own reality, but really they are just spouting a mix of wishful, naive or downright silly nonsense that lacks any nuance or understanding.

> There are multiple realities, and you can choose which one to inhabit.

Meanwhile you appear to be living on a different planet altogether.

So, let's do a quick check on your "no KYC" world shall we ?

I can walk up to your bank and take all the money out of your account. You're perfectly OK with that ? Because that's what a no KYC world is.

I can open up a bunch of credit cards in your name, spend like there's no tomorrow, with zero legal repercussions, leaving you riddled with debt. You're OK with that ? Because that's what a no KYC world is.

Both. KYC, as justified by antiterrorism laws, is out of proportion for a small one-person business earning roughly a living wage.

In the eventuality that KYC could be justified, it should be in the manner of Estonia and other European countries, who have managed to implement digital signatures without the insanity of validating infinitely reproducible pictures of paper ID documents from the last century, and relying on data-hungry third parties to process biometric data through "AI" black boxes.

I'm not sure why you consider it invasive to confirm your identity to a business partner.

A local bank wouldn't give you a bank account without you showing an id.

Verifying that a business partner is who they claim to be is the most basic first step in fraud prevention.

The passport uploading stuff is just an attempt to verify your identity over the web, since there is no global way to identify yourself digitally. A lot of countries have less invasive ways to confirm your identity. For example, in Austria we have digital signatures with a government app that sou can use to confirm your identity without revealing your passport. However, no global service supports it because it's a local solution.

I'm happy to report that my last two weeks have been paid out.

I've switched away from FastSpring in 2021, when they outsourced their payouts to Hyperwallet (for me this change meant double currency exchange USD -> EUR -> USD with associated double exchange fees). It looks like FastSpring rolled further downhill since then. This reminds me of Plimus/Bluesnap collapse: when this kind of company runs of cash, its tends to establish various funny fees before finally flipping up.

Also got such email from FastSpring.

I dislike this $150 payment requirement from them!

We will not pay and we switch away. Forget them.

Avoiding this kind of thing is part of why you're paying 30% to Apple / Google / Steam, etc.

For small developers Apple charges only 15%.

If you add up all the hidden fees from FastSpring (eg. intransparent currency exchange fees) then I'm not sure it's much cheaper than Apple.

So if you are an indie, and just starting out, and you are looking for the most cost effective solution, then the App Store is actually a good deal.

Only when you get to the 30% fee is when it pays off to look for other resellers....

The main issue with the App Store isn't Apple's cut, it's all of the other rules and restrictions.

A lot of Mac software can't even be sold in the Mac App Store because of sandboxing and other technical limitations. Then there are also the absurd, arbitrary business model limitations in the App Store. And of course, app review can reject you at any time for any reason or no good reason.

I don't know why anyone would rely on a payment processor that seems incapable of taking credit card payments for their own service.

As in this case it's being used as a backup provider, you're not likely to know how well they'll handle processing if your primary provider has issues. Given that this happened, I would question the wisdom of remaining with them?

Over the 22 years I was selling software online I went through four different payment processors (swreg, regnow, blue snap and avangate). In the end I decided they are all a bit shit in their own way. Changing again is a lot of pain for some slightly different problems.

I recently switched from FastSpring to MyCommerce, but they turned out to be crappy in a similar way. While their store seems more reliable, they are really expensive because they charge a hidden 5% fee on all foreign currencies (they charged 8-10%, then I complained and they dropped it to 5%). That's on top of their regular fees.

At least I didn't switch to WireCard (I had an offer from them, it sounded pretty good but their API seemed a bit half assed, so I was sceptical, then the scandal blew up, fortunately before I got set up with them).

Paddle seemed pretty sleazy, and switching to a UK company during Brexit also seemed like a bad idea.

Anyway, these vendors are all a bit crappy, but they are probably still cheaper / easier than doing it all yourself...

Paddle has its seat in London but they also have a US company registration. Revenue from my US customers goes through Paddle in US. It has been working well for me so far, except for very long response times from their seller‘s support.

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