Notes from a conversation last night…
Two things you learn about money when you start building payment systems:
- Money is just a gate. When a transaction happens the gate can open or stay closed. Sometimes the gate is pretty simple – do you have enough money in your wallet? Sometimes the gate is a bit more interesting – do you have money? should we give you credit? do we trust you? what does your data patterns and reputation say?
- Don’t confuse value flow with money flow. Payment systems record transactions – the flow of value. This is usually aggregated daily before actual money flows between bank accounts.