#4 Linking Paypal and Steemit. Momentum building...

So here's the update on my project to allow Steemit users to exchange Paypal for Steem.

Here's post #3 during which some of the problems with Payapl were discussed in the comments:

https://steemit.com/bitcoin/@nikflossus/3-bringing-paypal-into-the-mix-and-making-our-own-market

I've had generally positive feedback about the intention to increase investment in Steem as a currency. More negative has been the attitude towards Paypal allowing that to happen. The fear is that Paypal, not wanting any other digital currencies to flourish would shut down any attempts we made to transfer Paypal credit into Steem via a simple escrow system. This would be in their business interest and preserve their monopoly for longer.

So how do we solve this? 

First, we understand and define it.

If Paypal were to detect and block any escrow transfers that were intended to go to Steem I would define it as follows. 'The administrative process behind currency transfer failing to meet our needs.'

Fair enough? Good. Now why have I used this long winded definition? Because I'm going to show you another time the exact same thing happened and how it was solved by trust and a knowledge of commerce. A case study...

During the years 1966 to 1976 Ireland suffered from a series of bank strikes. To clarify what happened, 'clearing' banks (the high street bank which used to process everybody's cash and clear cheques) stopped providing their services, sometimes for months at a time. Cash was limited and nobody could process cheques which were then the dominant form of exchange. The longest strike lasted for almost 6 months. 

So what happened?

Total collapse? Starvation? Riots? 

No. The opposite. People found a work around.

Spontaneously all over Ireland people bagan to ask themselves what a cheque actually was. Very quickly they realised it was simply an IOU. A piece of paper formally compiled and signed which functioned as a link to a contract.

And so they began to create cheques for themselves; sometimes on specially cut pieces of card, sometimes on the back of beer mats or pieces of toilet paper. The free thinking Irish were creative. 

At first people were tentative, but once they realised and internalised the fact that they were essentially doing the same thing the banks had done the system took off.

Overall it worked well and some people were actually disappointed when the banks reopened and they had to go back to the old system. Fraud was not a major issue because dishonesty in the old system and in the new one were both remedied by punishment.

So what has this to do with Paypal: an aggressive unpleasant money transfer monopoly, and Steemit: a new and revolutionary social media platform?

The principle is exactly the same. Our needs are not being met and so we take action. We find a way get money from Paypal accounts into Steem.  And if Paypal tries to stop this we take further action that Paypal cannot stop without closing down its own business.

But how?

Let me answer that with a series of three questions.

1. What is money laundering?

2. Why shouldn't you do it?

3. And why, when a large privately owned monopoly seeks to block anyone else from freedom of internet money transfer, is it both legal and a moral obligation to use the key principles behind money laundering to force Paypal to play by reasonable rules.

Next time: How to bypass Paypal's rules by creating a transfer chain.

Please resteem if you think this concept deserves more attention. I think it'd be great to have upward pressure on the price of Steem to counteract any downturn from the impending 'hard fork'.

Steem on Steembuddies!