
Ask HN: How to accept payments from users and pay out partners? - alexgpark
- We are first-time founders, working on launching an MVP of a content-platform<p>- Currently unincorporated + no business bank account<p>- Want to launch with a paid, premium option<p>- Want to pay our partners a commission as well<p>Thanks!
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drsim
Stripe Connect and Braintree are set up for marketplace scenarios but you'd
need a company. Possible to hack together something with the PayPal API too,
simply paying out to an email address.

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codegeek
Actually with Paypal, you can use something called MassPay using their API.

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Mz
Thanks for that.

Is that something you can do with just a simple individual account? Or is this
something you need to upgrade your account for? If it involves upgrades, does
it have monthly fees? Does it require a business account?

Found a couple of overviews, but I don't see all of the above questions
readily answered:

[https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_batch-payment-
ove...](https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_batch-payment-overview-
outside)

[https://www.paypal.com/webapps/mpp/mass-
payments](https://www.paypal.com/webapps/mpp/mass-payments)

~~~
codegeek
Good question. For Mass Pay API, you actually need a business account. I don't
think there is any extra fee though other than the usual transaction fee that
paypal charges.

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Mz
Thanks.

The links I posted suggest the sender pays a fee upon use of MassPay,
otherwise, no. There is no extra fee. Though I don't have a business account,
so I don't really know what that entails.

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grover_hartmann
Bitcoin

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alexgpark
not an expert on bitcoin transactions - i would still need to create a
business bank account and incorporate and use a payments processor like Stripe
to do that, right?

~~~
grover_hartmann
Not really, it depends.

You don't need a bank account to accept bitcoins, all you need is a Bitcoin
wallet.

If what you want is to convert bitcoin to fiat currency, there are lots of
ways to do that.

You can do that by using Circle/Coinbase and link your accounts to a bank
account, have Coinbase/Circle convert it to cash for you.

Other ways to do that is with an ATM, bitcoin credit/debit cards,
localbitcoins.com, etc.

I suggest Bitcoin because it's been way more flexible and easier for me when
it comes to international payments.

Good luck.

