STATUS: Mature draft of this post.
$Id: 15-wpwg-blog.txt,v 1.25 2016/04/18 21:52:13 ijacobs Exp $

 NOTE: The text will be modified according to the specs the group
 decides to publish (after the call for consensus).


=============
Title: First Public Working Drafts of Payment Request API 

The mission of the Web Payments Working Group is to make payments
easier and more secure on the Web.  Today the Web Payments Working
Group published first drafts of specifications in pursuit of this
mission:

 * Payment Request API
   http://www.w3.org/TR/payment-request/

   This specification describes a web API to allow merchants (i.e., web
   sites selling physical or digital goods) to easily accept payments
   from different payment methods with minimal integration. User
   agents (e.g. browsers) will facilitate the payment flow between
   merchant and user.

 * Payment Method Identifiers
   http://www.w3.org/TR/payment-method-id/

   This document defines payment method identifier strings so that
   components in the payment ecosystem can determine which parties
   support which payment methods.

 * Basic Card Payment
   http://www.w3.org/TR/payment-method-basic-card/

   This specification describes the data formats used by the Payment
   Request API to support payment by payment cards such as credit or
   debit cards.

We have also published a FAQ today, and will update the FAQ
as we receive questions from the community:
 https://github.com/w3c/webpayments/wiki/PaymentRequestFAQ

Although the Web Payments Working Group has begun to discuss payment
application registration [1], we do not yet have a specification for
this important piece of the Payment Request API suite. I expect the
group will now turn its attention to developing that specification.

Together, these specifications will help streamline checkout in Web
sites and applications. Payment Request API Architecture provides an
overview of the anticipated user experience and how the specifications
fit together.

IMPORTANT: These are early, incomplete drafts! We recognize that
people not previously involved with W3C may be accustomed to
specifications being more "mature" when they are first made public. In
the W3C Process, "First Public Working Draft" does not mean that the
specifications are publicly available for the first time; Editors'
Drafts are always public. Rather, it is a call for early review by the
Working Group to the broader community.

In addition to hearing general feedback such as "yes, this seems like
a useful overall direction" the group has a number of specific issues
where we would like input, covering topics including:

 * Extensibility and versioning
 * Security and Privacy
 * How much functionality to include in the API

Issues are sprinkled throughout the documents and are being managed in
the group's issues lists (one general [a], and one specific to these
documents [b]). As you read the documents, we invite your comments on
the issues, or you may wish to raise new issues. Please see the status
section of each specification for information about how to provide
feedback.

After First Public Working Draft, the Editors will incorporate
Working Group resolutions into the evolving Editors' Drafts [3].

In parallel, we are also studying in detail how the API will be used
to addressed common payment methods. The Working Group is documenting
"real-world" payment flows [2] for payment methods such as credit
cards, credit cards with 3DS, tokenized cards, SEPA credit transfers,
Bitcoin, Alipay, and others.  For each flow, the group expects to show
how the Payment Request API fits into these payment flows. We also
expect this detailed investigation to inform developer guidance on how
to use the API in different scenarios and how to plan corresponding
payment apps.  We also expect the flows will inform our test suite
development.

We welcome assistance from the community to help us document
common payment flows, both those we have started to analyze and
any others you feel we should address. Please see [2] if you
wish to help.

The Working Group is currently focused on advancing the Payment
Request API suite, but is also chartered to facilitate payments
outside of the browser (e.g., via an HTTP API). We expect to turn our
attention to that work mid-year.

Today's publications represent an important milestone for the Working
Group, but we have a lot more to do to develop, test, and deploy
the new API. We welcome your feedback and your help in our effort to
make Web payments easier and more secure.


Ian Jacobs, W3C Web Payments Lead

[1] https://github.com/WICG/paymentrequest/blob/gh-pages/docs/registration.md
[2] https://github.com/w3c/webpayments-flows/wiki
[3] https://w3c.github.io/browser-payment-api/
[a] https://github.com/w3c/webpayments/issues
[b] https://github.com/w3c/browser-payment-api/issues