You might wonder why I am posting here about PayPal, well now that PayPal is available as a platform, pay attention when you begin seeing new offerings on the horizon, in other words is the company actually using PayPal or like a HealthVault account for example, are they using the platform.  This is important so you know where you money is going.  Other than the brief video below I don’t know exactly how this is going to work and I’m sure we will hear more as time moves on, but my question here concerns whether or not we will have both “tethered” accounts and “non-tethered” accounts.  A non tethered account would be a company using the software platform to process money, but accounts, etc. are not connected to PayPal and are in layman’s terms, using a similar type of screen process that is run by the PayPal software engine. 

Buyers Health Care Action Group in Minnesota Collaborates with HealthVault for a PHR that is “Non-Tethered” to any Employer, Provider or Health Plan

You can read the above link to understand a bit how in this example, HealthVault is a non tethered platform for personal health records above, and if you look at the image below, there is a notation at the bottom of the screen that states “powered by HealthVault” and hopefully with PayPal we can expect the same type of notification so we are aware of where the money goes and the fact they are using a software platform and that it is not a simple PayPal account as we have grown to know.  In a non tethered account the company using the platform holds the data and files on their servers.

Now to really confuse you, there are “tethered” accounts too and today those are more plentiful today, as it takes time to develop the platform and get things rolling for non tethered applications.  I have a feeling though that the PayPal platform may  move a bit faster than the personal health records platform simply due to the fact that it is money transactions. 

I almost live and breathe all of this stuff, but I wonder how in the world is the average consumer going to comprehend some of this?  I have a hard time keeping on top of it, so when you go to pay your medical bills in the future, where is the money going, and to who?  When software as we have known evolves to where it is sold as a platform, it may be hard to stay on top of what type of service you are using, web based software or a platform of software using the same processing machine.  If I have confused you a bit here, welcome to the club!  We may have both tethered and non tethered PayPal accounts too on the horizon and further more with connecting to a bank account just read up and be aware, read and ask questions.  No need to panic though for your account with PayPal, still business as usual, but be alert for changes and new offerings to appear down the road.  BD 

Thompson said that it will provide APIs into the PayPal system in two weeks (starting November 3). He indicated that he looks forward to developers creating send money applications for social networking sites all the way up to payroll systems in foreign countries. His remarks indicated that he believes this could start to transform what he called a $30 Trillion global payments market.

Over next year, he said, PayPal will release dozens of APIs.

Given PayPal's popularity in this market, the announcement could put an interesting damper on something like Facebook's foray into the payments business.

PayPal Opens Its Platform - Full Nelson - InformationWeek

0 comments :

Post a Comment

 
Top
Google Analytics Alternative