snapper: an introduction
I’ve been interested in various forms of electronic cash for a long time now: joining the DigiCash trial in 1995; then waiting excitedly, but ultimately uselessly, for Mondex and VisaCash around the turn of the millennium; signing up for PayPal as soon as it went international in 2001… and then nothing. Nothing.
I suppose it’s unlikely now, post September 11, that anyone’s ever going to implement the sort of anonymous electronic cash that could replace the present functions of notes and coins. But the failure to come up with anything remotely approaching it has been disappointing to my inner geek.
Here in Wellington though, the first halting steps into the future are occurring. And they’re spearheaded by a bus company. Yeah, you heard right. Not a bank (they’ve been burned several times), nor starry-eyed crypto-geeks with a private line to a VC (the VCs have done their dough already on that) but a bus company.
It turns out that ticketing is a big expense in transportation (no surprise, really); the solution is smart cards of one sort or another; but these too are expensive, so they need to be expanded in function to become more cash-like in usage in order to become economical, especially in small places like New Zealand. This is what Infratil are up to with their Snapper card. It’s been done before elsewhere (London’s Oyster and Hong Kong’s Octopus are often quoted), but here there seems to be quite a strong emphasis on the wider uses of the system outside transportation. This I like.
To get it going Infratil imported Charles Monheim from Oyster to head up the Snapper project. Monheim, an American who used to run the NYCTA’s buses before heading up Oyster, seems the sort that would only come on board if Infratil had big plans and the salaries to match, which counts as a good omen for Snapper I think. And ambitions for Snapper are not small: Infratil have been quoted as hoping “to turn Snapper into a nationwide payment system for public transport and small purchases.”
So, it’s probably going to be a good thing to understand both the technologies driving Snapper, and the kinds of social and financial impacts that might arise from ubiquitous use, should Infratil be successful. I hope to write some more about all this later.
Mike Riversdale
21 July 2008, 00:17 #
From what I’ve read the retailers are gonna get right royally screwed with Snapper – it’s being treated like a credit transaction when it’s really cash (the card has money on it!).
Bit rough.
Otherwise, it’s a service that save the bus company cost but does nothing for me … really, would I bother if they didn’t force me (as they will by withdrawing other options)
Alan
21 July 2008, 13:10 #
Yes and no. Retailers get charged a commission of 1%: larger than EFTPOS, but smaller than credit cards. Certainly some retailers seem to be hanging back a bit at the moment, although there’s a good sprinkling of cafés (e.g., Wishbone) about town taking it on.
There are some cool possibilities with this technology, for retailers and customers, that I hope to explore in future.
Sam Farrow
21 July 2008, 18:12 #
Recently over coffee I was confronted with an argument for exploring the possibilities of using Snapper to charge Micropayments for news content and despite initially assuming the newspaper bound proponent was high, in the end he actually made some sense.
Micropayments services for news content have failed as frequently as the digital cash systems you mention, but given the right platform – are people prepared to pay small amounts for news in lieu of advertising?
Mr Reasonable
21 July 2008, 20:55 #
I couldn’t possibly comment but this couldn’t happen without some smart types at a bank developing the payment links to make the whole thing viable……
Alan
21 July 2008, 21:43 #
Mr Reasonable: Well, without trying to downplay the input of the smart bank types, who I know have done a lot of work on this, I’m guessing that if Snapper had been envisioned as just a system for transportation ticketing, then the input of the banks would not have been needed. No special EFTPOS terminals in cafés and shops; therefore no need for deep and detailed involvement with an EFTPOS provider.
Sam: I think the micropayments for webpages meme died with the software token-based schemes like DigiCash and Millicent (I quite liked PepperCoin, too). Using Snapper isn’t that practical, as you’d have to have your snapper card plugged into your PC while you read the news. Anything that requires the average punter to plug anything into their PCs is doomed to fail. And apart from the technical problems, there’s the sad but true fact that people resist subscription models for news stories…
David Vanrenen
21 July 2008, 21:56 #
Have a look at http://www.icoins.com/
Stephen
22 July 2008, 09:22 #
Sam, there is no way I will be involved in using Snapper for micropayments – their dongle doesn’t support Macs or Linux. Likewise, I suspect Snapper would find the burden of supporting the numerous Windows and browser variants too onerous.
Based on my observation on the bus last night they are going to have to speed up the time it takes to read on exit, otherwise there will be pandemonium on crowded buses when more than 2 Snapper users want to get off.
I still haven’t had any reply to my email to them asking about privacy. I think I might try a snail mail letter…
I wonder if one could become a Snapper broker and sell anonymised Snapper dongles.
Alan
22 July 2008, 09:51 #
Stephen: I’m sure the dongle will support Mac and Linux eventually – it’s a standard card reader after all and is recognised as such by PCSCD on my Mac. However, personally I’m a little uncomfortable with the privacy aspects of surfing about on the net and having my browsing habits tracked for billing purposes (although this sort of problem appears not to concern many people).
I’ve also wondered about a broker/remixer for Snapper cards. One problem is what to do with the residual value left on the cards, which could not be ascertained without connection back to Snapper.
Fundamentally though we are looking for an electronic cash substitute: anonymous, fungible, and tradeable between individuals outside the view of the issuer. Although possessing a certain amount of geeky charm, Snapper is none of those things.
Stephen
22 July 2008, 10:17 #
Actually reading their FAQ it seems that only an email address is required to register. So perhaps one could create a throwaway account with a dodgy web provider, or even a Mailinator account, and use it to register without revealing identity.
Stephen
22 July 2008, 10:45 #
And a PS to Sam – right now I pay for a Salon subscription, which I consider well worthwhile. I don’t think I’d bother paying them on a per-article basis. Likewise, I reward my favourite web comics with the odd donation and purchases of merch. Micropayments would have to be extremely unintrusive to compete.