I asked a question to Richard in the ANON summit and he answered it here: https://youtu.be/-SbvpjsWNGU?t=3922
He says in the second part of the answer that its fairly easy to add a fee to , in example the WooCommerce platform. Which it is (sort of)! You still need an extra manual made transaction after the purchase to the company that should get the fee amount. Its not quite what I had in mind (adding extra ETN and a extra transaction is not the solution in my opinion). My idea is more that its like the “affiliate” links used in Amazon and many other platform. That the fee is happening in a more seamless manner with the fee being being drawn from the total amount.
The confirmation could look something like:
- Company A sells something to a customer
- Company B helps Company A find this customer and close the deal.
Not only affiliate links but something like a real estate agent deal or anything where there is a third party connecting the deal to happen. As a third part business deal initiator (like real estate agent) you do not want to talk about “your cut” - the price/deal should be focused between Seller and Buyer (and the fee whatever the agent manages to get and accepted price for). Of course, its Company A that integrates the fee in to their payment request.
As a web designer I could for example try to sell a web hosting companys services on my own sites and by doing so get a small cut directly on each of these ETN transactions.
On the ground someone could be selling a companies goods/services with “commission” and actually see the fee entering instantly after each purchase to their wallets.
This type of possible automation at insane low cost is what makes crypto superior to fiat money. Setting up an affiliate network with fiat is crazy amounts of administration and costly bank transfers. But crypto could make it super easy and accessible (and regulated with ETNs instant payment layer)
Probably there should be a limit of 5% or so so that the example Richard makes of a 90% fee is not possible.
I think these type of things is what draws a lot of attention and makes people spread the word like the wind - and I think businesses have an extra incentive to start accepting ETN (as it could create a small army of people trying to help them sell for a small earning - think how much all youtubers with amazon affiliate links in their description have gained in sells for amazon!!)… its a win-win type of thing. If I knew “my cut”/fee was bolted into the API I would make quite an effort to try to sell whatever product/service that had it
There are a lot of “affiliate” plugins for ecommerce tools like Magento, WooCommerce, OpenCart (that creates special affiliate links to products etc) and if a fee solution could be integrated totally automatically (and transparent for the buyer) like this that could drive a lot of usage and adoption.
Because it would only work for businesses/vendors (also the fee recipient needs to be a vendor/business) I don’t see any regulatory problems with this. It just automates and makes the possibility to create “affiliates” a lot easier and more trusted by allowing the payment request link to have an extra “fee outlet ID/percent amount” inside.
I know “affiliates” sounds scammy by definition - but it should not be ignored as its super effective marketing and enables entrepreneurial opportunities (including the unbanked!).
What do you think?
