
Venmo Halts New Developer Access To Its API - coloneltcb
http://techcrunch.com/2016/02/26/how-not-to-run-a-platform/
======
jasontsui
The author is trying to get on the outrage train when there is no compelling
reason for it. The college kids he cites? A project with 2 likes. Splitting a
Papa Johns pizza? Killer use case. OP seems to be grasping at straws to find
concrete reasons for the API to exist.

"Drivers, dog walkers, handymen" are mentioned but author doesnt include an
actual example - those were all examples supplied by Venmo itself...3 years
ago. Who are the developers hes talking about when he says "community that
stuck with Venmo"?

And finally, unlike Twitter, which has an plethora number of ways to be
consumed, searched and experienced that would be better as different apps -
Venmo does not. Its just a P2P payment system.

The way I see it, Venmo has accomplished the following -

1\. Deprecated old features (save resources, reduce complexity)

2\. Found new way of building profitable and sustainable relationships w other
businesses, rather than just a wild west API.

Terrible read, file this under- "How TO Run a Platform"

~~~
hire_charts
The biggest API integration I know of is Splitwise. Their Android app has
500K+ installs and it's probably the same ballpark on iOS, which puts them
leagues above a college kid with 2 likes.

~~~
fredifrum
Splitwise will continue to work and run. The API is not being shut down, they
are simply not authorizing new API applications. The article is wrong and
massively misleading.

~~~
supergeek133
I noticed the headline changed.

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fredifrum
The article is massively wrong and misleading. The API is NOT being shut down.
Current applications can still work, but new ones are no longer being
accepted.

See this tweet from Venmo:

[https://twitter.com/venmo/status/703353293326655488](https://twitter.com/venmo/status/703353293326655488)

 _> Don't worry, the Venmo API is still available to existing users, we're
just not accepting new beta users for now._

~~~
mclifton
I love that they're trying to pin this on Venmo, like it's somehow their
problem and not a completely misleading article built on misinformation.

> Venmo seems to be confused. According to statement below from Venmo and the
> message on the developer site, the API is no longer available. But now Venmo
> tells me the API is still available to existing developers, but not to new
> ones, which can be a sign of an impending shut down. We’ll update with more
> info soon once Venmo figures itself out. Parts of this article have been
> changed for accuracy.

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sisk
This is extremely misleading. The (beta) Venmo API is no longer accepting new
user sign ups. It will continue to work for existing users.

This is because Pay with Venmo is already available through Braintree (who
acquired Venmo):

[https://www.braintreepayments.com/features/venmo](https://www.braintreepayments.com/features/venmo)

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saneshark
I think Venmo must have come under greater scrutiny. I was recently contacted
by someone in their support and compliance team about a charitable donation I
made to a Syrian refugee cause. I can't help to think that this particular
contribution was flagged for some kind of potential Safe Harbor violation. I
gave them the name of the charity and they moved on.

It could be that they shut down the api because of the difficulty of doing
compliance for these third party apps, after falling under greater scrutiny by
government regulation.

Or perhaps there was a specific incident that they're trying to get ahead of:

- _hypothetical_ -

maybe the San Bernardino phone the FBI is trying to crack has Venmo
transactions through a third party app that are now under scrutiny.

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seibelj
The fact this decision was made shows that non-engineers are calling all of
the shots. Would love to hear from any engineer at venmo / paypal who can give
the inside scoop

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andrethegiant
Never understood why/how Venmo gained so much popularity in the first place.
Using it is not any easier than using PayPal, Square Cash, etc. The only
differentiating feature I can think of is its newsfeed of friends'
transactions (and it baffles me how anyone finds that interesting). Am I
missing something?

~~~
saneshark
It's a lot easier than Paypal to make an account and send money. Your friends
and contacts are already loaded via whatever social network you OAuth[orized]
the app through.

It is quite literally as easy as typing a friends name and having it auto
completed. Typing in a number and hitting send.

Paypal might have an app that does something similar and it likely came after
Venmo gained popularity. For most of us, who have been using Paypal since the
2000s, it might not seem logical, but Paypal UI experience does seem like an
archaic UI experience by comparison even to me.

~~~
TillE
PayPal has had "send money to any email address" since the very beginning, or
close to it. Yes the recipient has to then create a PayPal account, but that's
usually not very painful.

~~~
thescriptkiddie
Have you ever made a PayPal account? Sending in scans of two different photo
IDs isn't exactly "not very painful".

~~~
nd1234
yep, works fine ...

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pfarnsworth
I'm guessing this is due to fraud or compliance, and some bigwig at Paypal
said "Shut it down now."

~~~
nd1234
likely as they have so many apis already

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atrudeau
Somebody should create an API risk rating that devs can consult. This same
story plays over and over again...

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Animats
On the one hand, it's obnoxious to create an API and encourage developers to
use it, then pull the plug. On the other hand, APIs that process payments are
a way to steal money, and tougher standards are necessary. Venmo has had
security problems and fraud problems. Putting a fourth party in the chain
(Venmo itself is a third party; it's not a bank, it's an external ACH
transaction generator) makes it tough to allocate blame when something goes
wrong.

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benlower
That's unfortunate for anyone who was using the API. Not cool to just shut it
off like that. However it seems Venmo has realized they are an app and not a
platform.

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aioprisan
Who thought this was a good idea? Are existing businesses using their API cut
off, or just new sign-ups? How can existing businesses develop new or existing
functionality on their platform? Cue in the "sorry we're not sorry" non-
apology blog post in 72 hours.

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eatonphil
This seems like a reasonable move by PayPal - except for the lack of a
migration plan. Why not address it directly and offer a path to migrate to
PayPal? It seems like they had an opportunity to gain all Venmo API users and
instead, they threw them all away.

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darzu
Will this break Splitwise?

~~~
carlosdp
Thought the same thing. Yea, pretty sure it will.

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eva1984
Hahh...they will lose all the trust and will never recover

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ppdev
paypal apis have improved a lot since
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4485627](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4485627)
but these occurrences takes paypal back again. looks like there are multiple
developer teams again that are not integrated

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ppdev
paypal apis have improved a lot since
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4485627](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4485627)
but these occurrences takes paypal back again. looks like there are multiple
developer teams again that are not integrated

------
ppdev
paypal apis have improved a lot since
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4485627](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4485627)
but these occurrences takes paypal back again. looks like there are multiple
developer teams again that are not integrated

------
hobonumber1
Ouch. Anyone affected by this?

~~~
Recoveringhobo
Yep. I have two services using the API, both only really used by my friends.
One is a cost splitting web app and the other was to send money to your
friends only through SMS.

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nathancahill
dang, can you change the title to the updated article title: "Venmo Kills Off
New Developer Access To Its API"

