WingCash is Open!

I’ve been working on a cool project for the past year.  I haven’t been able to share much about it, but now that it’s open to the public, I intend to talk about it and explore it in the open.  It’s built on Python, Repoze.BFG (to be replaced with Pyramid soon), PostgreSQL, Buildout, and a big pile of other great software.

WingCash is a system for sending cash on the Internet between people and businesses.  It is Brad Wilkes’s idea and dream.  He had the idea while working at FamilySearch.  FamilySearch is trying to help genealogical archives remain financially solvent so that the records they hold can be accessible to the world.  WingCash is completely independent of FamilySearch, but one of the intents is to solve a major financial issue for genealogical archives.

To that end, a foundational principle of WingCash is to charge no fees for direct exchanges of cash between WingCash users.  On WingCash, sending a penny is sensible and economical.  It is also sensible for millions to send a penny apiece to a single recipient.

WingCash does have to charge fees for other kinds of transfers, such as transfers to a bank, since banks charge WingCash for the service.  WingCash will also offer premium services.  But the core service of holding cash and sending it to anyone for no charge will remain free for good.

WingCash currently has limited resources, so please don’t hammer the newborn server, but WingCash does have a design that should allow it to expand into many servers over time.  Check it out and say what you think.  Please add your ideas to the feedback forum.

Here are some topics I expect to cover in future posts about WingCash:

• I heart pythonsecurity.org
• Bank notes are back
• Integration with web stores and donation pages
• Plans for the API