I know we have had several talks on here about gift cards and other things for payments but wanted to get peoples thoughts on app based systems.

With all of them you need to link a debit card to them to get paid or pay out.

Facebook is out because there is to much personal info there for all parties.

The first one is using Snapcash Via Snapchat. The use Square as the app that makes the payment. With this one the advantage is you are sending it from a user name to a user name. How quick you get it I don't know since I have not used it personally.

The other one is Google Wallet. I have used this one and love it and you get the money almost instantly. This one you are sending it from email addy to email addy. So technically more info but still not a ton.

Both use bank quality encryption so you should be safe there.  

The questions are how easy would it be for LE to be able to get a warrant to get any info from these or would it be to costly and time consuming for them to even try?

Advantage for the guy is you could pay before you even show up, not carry your phone with so if you were to get stopped you have no cash in your pocket thus making any case against you a lot harder to prove. Not sure I would want to use this system the first time with someone new because there is the chance of there being an electronic cash and dash.

Lets hear thoughts from both sides on what you see could be advantages and disadvantages that I may have missed. Not sure if either makes sense or not but I do see maybe more advantages with the right people. And maybe its done just between regulars that have built a little bit of trust between each other.

Theoretically, this is awesome.  If we had the ability to pay through a phone, it would give us an easy way to take care of the most awkward part of the process.  If payment was regularly processed ahead of time, it might even make providers feel more comfortable with the visitor.  I could even see this reducing the number of no-shows which might even lead to lower rates for all (I know this is wishful thinking, but it's not impossible).

BUT

Any method of transferring funds online must be attached to a bank account. That money has to be kept somewhere--whether it's a prepaid credit card, a huge financial institution, or some small, little-known bank. I'm pretty sure there are laws that require detailed tracking of bank transactions. For an infrequent hobbyist like myself, this wouldn't be a problem.  I can have lots of small accounts all over the place and, unless LE targets me specifically, there's really nothing that points to me or attracts attention. A provider, however, will have a very distinct trail of transactions that could easily be identified and targeted as illegal activity. In addition, the IRS can access bank account info. Even if they aren't targeting someone for an illegal profession, they could target him/her for tax fraud or evasion. So, this is not really a good option.

HOWEVER

Today, Bitcoin is the currency of choice for illegal activity because it's essentially untraceable and easy to get. Cyber criminals deal explicitly in Bitcoin. If you ever get the cryptolocker virus, they will require payment in Bitcoin to unlock your computer. Personally, I wouldn't mind paying for services in Bitcoin.  There's still the issue of actually buying your Bitcoins.  You have to pay for them somehow, and that's probably going to be with a credit card. Still, once you have them, they are easy to transfer and difficult to trace--making them the best option for today.

This is all changing very fast.  Next year there might be an even better option.  I'm sure there are already other options that I don't know about

This is one sport where it seams cash is king, I cant see many providers that would see an advantage to excepting anything ells.

Forgot about bitcoin.  

And yeah high volume providers this would not work. It would have to be low volume and between 2 people that trust each other like with your ATF

No question cash is king but between the right people it could be a possibility.

But cash has the advantage that there is no direct link between the account I withdraw it from and whereever she ends up depositing it, assuming she just doesn't use it to pay for things in cash.

In a only slightly related article, I ran across this today; it's a good read IMHO.

-- Modified on 4/7/2016 8:17:43 PM

Forgot about bitcoin.  
   
Unless you want to ask jchan...no I won't forget about his offer to set us all up

Good read, thanks vorlon.

Very good read and I don't think we should ever go totally cashless. I do like using Android Pay and such for somethings but still like using cold, hard cash for other things.

Taxes and Death.
But there are other truths to behold:
Cash is King and Fat Wallets are IN this seaso

Both taxes and death can be avoided, depending on the skill of one's accountant and one's religious beliefs.

Seems to me regardless of what one believes, we will all find out the truth at some point.

That technology makes our lives easier and more productive. Trouble is it also comes at a price. Part of that price is an electronic foot print I certainly don't want to leave. If it's not full proof, it's cash only here.