"It was actually Illinois and Nine Inch Nail's "Downard Spiral" CD." Smells like teen spirit to me :-) I imagine to be really successful any PP alternative is going to have to offer pretty much what PP does, the basics at least. No need for branded Visa cards & all that rigamarole but a variety of funding methods, service in at least the EU and major Asian and Latin American markets in addition to the N. America, fast reliable service and easy setup for merchants. With that and without PP's excewssive constraints, they'd be in a good position. The main problem seems to be going international since there seem to be some US only or US/UK PP type services. I've heard about eGold for a while but just now took a quick look at their site. It sounds interesting, different certainly, but I don't know how viable it is. No matter how good another service is, inertia is going to be a big problem. People are going to be reluctant to switch, there'll be hassle involved, they won't be sure if they can trust it etc. It's a chicken and egg thing and PP has a big lead. The tie-in with eBay makes them even more powerful. On the plus side, word spreads fast on the internet, good or bad. Still, I think you might need advertising, maybe merchant incentives etc. to get a good start. I have no idea how much this all costs or what kind of profits you can make or how many hoops you have to jump through with banks. I'm sure some Saudi prince could do it with pocket change. I'm going to look at eGold some more and some of the other services. For me it's relatively painless at the moment. The only PP payments I've gotten were for programming and the company will send you a check, albeit for a few dollar extra fee. I've already contacted some of the people I've used PP to buy from and discussed alternative payments. So far, everything I've purchased using PP was something that worst case, I could've (and in some cases probably should've) lived without anyway. For some folks, it's obviously not so easy.

"Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance." - H. L. Mencken