[sudo-discuss] Gratipocalypse

[Patrick O'Doherty]

Noisebridge started using Stripe recently to accept credit-card
donations, and it's been working great for us. It's also quite possible
that Stripe would extend some non-profit discount on the first $amount
of fees to sudo. Stripe also enables BTC donations (though we don't
avail of this currently @ noisebridge)

code for donate.noisebridge.net @
https://github.com/patrickod/noisebridge-donate should folks be
interested.

p

On Fri, May 08, 2015 at 08:56:30AM -0700, hol at gaskill.com wrote:
> this is potentially an emergency for us considering how little margin we
> have.
>
> any ideas? bitcoin? those vacuum canister tubes like they used to have at
> banks? obvs not paypal or their ilk.
>
> On 2015-05-07 16:54, danarauz at gmail.com wrote:
>
> >Someone in IRC #Sudoroom posted:
> >"does sudo still rely heavily on Gratipay?"
> >
> >"if so https://medium.com/gratipay-blog/gratipocalypse-42fd0ec0d9e8 [2] is
> >very relevant"
> >
> >Anyhow, a paste of the article (Published on May 7):
> >
> >GRATIPOCALYPSE
> >
> >-------------------------
> >
> >Three weeks ago, we announced [3] that our payment processor, Balanced
> >Payments, is going out of business. At the time, we said that, "we will
> >have to change Gratipay in some yet-to-be-fully-understood fashion in
> >order to survive the transition away from Balanced, and it will be hard."
> >We're now beginning to understand the changes we have to make, and they
> >couldn't be harder.
> >
> >Balanced is directing their customers to Stripe, and Stripe rejected us
> >because they believe our model "qualifies as money transmission [4]." They
> >followed up to specify changes [5] we would need to make in order to use
> >their service. These changes are drastic enough, but the suggestion that
> >Gratipay might be regulated as a money transmitter is even more serious.
> >
> >As soon as Stripe notified us of this possibility, we immediately
> >beganresearching the issue [6], and we quickly hired a lawyer [7] to help
> >us understand our situation. Yesterday, we concluded that the concerns
> >Stripe raised are real, and that therefore it would be both imprudent and
> >immoral for us to continue processing payments as we have been.
> >Unfortunately, we were unable to change course in time for this week's
> >payment cycle, and so, after 152 weeks of continuous operation, WE ARE FOR
> >THE FIRST TIME TODAY SKIPPING GRATIPAY'S WEEKLY PAYMENT CYCLE.
> >
> >Our intention is to quickly implement a revised model [8] that is true to
> >ourmission [9] and compliant with regulations, and resume processing
> >payments. However, A REVISED MODEL WILL ALMOST CERTAINLY EXCLUDE SOME OF
> >YOU WHO HAVE BEEN RECEIVING MONEY ON GRATIPAY IN THE PAST. Simultaneously,
> >we will work with regulators to resolve any past noncompliance, a process
> >we've already initiated.
> >
> >This really sucks for you, our users, especially those who have come to
> >depend on the income you've been receiving through Gratipay. We're deeply
> >sorry for not discovering and handling this situation sooner, and we look
> >forward to processing payments again as soon as possible.
> >
> >If you have any questions please contact us privately via email, or
> >publicly on this GitHub issue [8].
> >
> >_______________________________________________
> >sudo-discuss mailing list
> >sudo-discuss at lists.sudoroom.org
> >https://lists.sudoroom.org/listinfo/sudo-discuss [1]
>
>
> Links:
> ------
> [1] https://lists.sudoroom.org/listinfo/sudo-discuss
> [2] https://medium.com/gratipay-blog/gratipocalypse-42fd0ec0d9e8
> [3] https://medium.com/gratipay-blog/balancedshutdown-3a9fdb32e9c6
> [4]
> https://github.com/gratipay/gratipay.com/issues/3245#issuecomment-91112973
> [5]
> https://github.com/gratipay/gratipay.com/issues/3324#issuecomment-93562216
> [6] https://github.com/gratipay/gratipay.com/issues/3321
> [7] https://github.com/gratipay/inside.gratipay.com/issues/193
> [8] https://github.com/gratipay/inside.gratipay.com/issues/192
> [9] http://inside.gratipay.com/big-picture/mission
> _______________________________________________
> sudo-discuss mailing list
> sudo-discuss at lists.sudoroom.org
> https://lists.sudoroom.org/listinfo/sudo-discuss

--
Patrick O'Doherty
+1 (650) 701-7829
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