The "what and the why" are missing from both the page linked to, and the first link in the page. I define "missing" as "not easily found while skimming".
it looks like its basically an anti-competitive law that requires a $500,000 license to be any sort of payment processor in California. The law was pushed through by a lobby group of existing big name financials companies.
Because entrepreneurs shouldn't have to worry about federal prison just for thinking about starting a payments company (see proposed section 2155 of AB 786).
[+] [-] JOnAgain|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tankm0de|13 years ago|reply
some recent developments http://www.aarongreenspan.com/writing/essay.html?id=86
[+] [-] enraged_camel|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] thinkcomp|13 years ago|reply
More reasons:
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5308013