Liveblogging Web 2.0 Summit: Revolution Money's Ted Leonsis And Jason HoggLiveblogging Web 2.0 Summit: Revolution Money's Ted Leonsis And Jason Hogg

Leonsis and Hogg did a presentation describing their new Revolution Money system, which has big plans: To obsolete the way credit cards and PayPal currently operate, using Web 2.0 techniques. It'll be more secure, more flexibile -- and free to merchants.

Leonsis: Can help go after a major industry, which has been neglected by the Web. The world wed all lived in following Moore's Law network effect. Why is credit card interchange costs to merchants going up? The marketplace is close to $60 billion. Each company has continued to raise its prices. Seemed right for revolutionized market.

Could you take those fees, the $60 billion, away from three to five big players and give them back to merchants and consumers.

This business is much bigger than Internet media business and growing at the same rate. For every $100 consumers spend on credit cards, $3 is spent on this business.

"I really believe this business can be transformed by Web 2.0 technologies." It's integrated online and offline payment platform. "It's PayPal meets MasterCharge without the high fees." It's a credit card, prepay card, and ATM card - don't have to have multiple cards.

Card doesn't need name and signature: Introduced first credit card that's PIN-based.

We want to become to social networks what PayPal is to eBay. We believe we can stimulate micropayments. If you use iTunes and buy one song, $0.99, Apple batches payment because they don't want to incur the fees. There are no fees for Revolution Card.

URLs: http://revolutionmoney.com is the Web site. http://revolutioncard.com to fill out an application.

Should be able to send money online: Western Union currently charges $14 for $200. Should be able to send it on the Internet, precharge a card, or withdraw it from an ATM machine.

Hogg: This will be a big deal for college students and minorities.

Leonsis: First deal with AOL and AIM - built into AIM. "It's a major endeavor, lots of technology, and patents involved." Raised $50 million, including from Leonsis.

Major player: Accepted at a million sites in the next 12 months, want hundres of millions of people using it. Will be going live in November. If you're a PayPal power-user, if you have an e-commerce site and don't want to make payments to interchange, if you have fantasy sports. "If you have a large installed base of consumers, we can save you a lot of money."

Value proposition: No name and signature on card, no fee to consumers using it online, 50 basis points, a flat fee, to use it as a credit card. Self-fulfilling marketing, all the merchants want to get those savings so they do the marketing for us.

I didn't know what a "basis point" is, either. It's 1/100th of a percent -- so 50 basis points is one half of one percent.

"Not only is this a new company attacking 1970s mainframe technology, but it's a technology where the partners create the social network."

Jason: "A few years ago, I listened to someone from MasterCard -- I call him 'my dad' -- talk about their network." They built these mini-internets. Looked into his wallet: Credit card, debit card, gift cars, was using PayPal. This fragmentation was a byproduct of having only private networks. He set out to create a new payment platform from scratch.

Can add a line of credit to Revolution Card.

By embedding in social networks, they don't have to leave their current application and go to a secondary application. For example, right-click while in AOL AIM and send message to a buddy.

Can eliminate $0.10-$0.15 per transaction fee online. Want to open up to sales under a dollar. Eliminates huge backlog of microtransactions batched in the systems.

Can use the card to cross-promote between merchants.

"What we're trying to do is shift the traditional rewards program, where people want to get 25,000 points for an alarm clock, to get immediate gratification at the point of sale."

I'm confused by this presentation. What's the consumer's benefit to using this card, when the cost of a credit card is free if I don't run up a charge month-to-month?