Dropcash - great idea well-executed

8.17.2004 @ 18:44 | [0]

Andre Torrez kicks butt - he just finished a very cool project called DropCash, that I wanted to do ages ago, but never could get the time/plans/energy together to do, and he knocked it out of the park. You can call it many things - a "thermometer", a "fundraising tool", "goal-tracker", what-have-you. It's a simple way to set up a goal dollar amount, give it a title, a description, and best, a URL that the whole world can see and use to donate or track the progress.I prefer to think of it as a very useful tool to promote and simplify the concept of the "chip-in", or collective buying. Get your whole family to pitch in easily to buy that new TV for grandma, or collectively reward a friend or acquaintance by selecting an item from their Amazon Wishlist and raising the funds with dropcash - that way everyone can view the progress of the fundraising (and if someone pledged cash and is tardy with it, they can be tracked in public). At gomi no sensei, there are screenshots to show you the simple process. [Edit - now Dropcash has Badges, here's my test badge - Cool!]Collective purchasing is something I know people at Amazon were interested in for a long time, but there was always a problem with the details of execution - who holds the money? If it's a corporation, then they end up acting like a bank and are subject to all sorts of restrictions. If it's a person, how do you trust the transactions? How do you track progress, how do you deal with refunds or goals that fall short? In the case of Dropcash, the one person who organizes the fundraiser (and sets up the campaign page) gets to set the rules and really is the one finally accountable - as it should be, liability becomes moot. Andre's handled this well by leaving the entire operation open, using PayPal as an established trustworthy API for transactions and TypeKey for identity.As a more concrete example, I've set up a real-world campaign - A fine time for a Coolpix. If you've ever offered to donate to kokogiak.com before, (or thought about it), here's the place to do it. But not all pages have to be so self-serving - I definitely see charitable and community-based fundraising being able to use this.Paypal should buy dropcash outright, or at least give Andre a consulting gig or something. This sort of cumulative micropayment tool could really mean a lot to them, considering they charge about 30 cents per transaction. Now I'm thinking of ways to tie in Amazon.com's API with dropcash hmm, many possibilities. Nice work Mr. Torrez.