I need some help to squash this stupid little idea I formulated, one that might make me money. Though i've researched things, I want all of it to really sink in so I don't attempt this idiotic notion since I don't have even have 10% of the necessary intelligence to carry it out.

Backstory: Several artists I frequent on Deviant Art have talked about how they've had problems with Paypal. One problem that a person/artist talked about was how they use the service to pay bills. When money was being taken out of the account, Paypal was quick to react and became rather "persnickety" towards the person.

Idea/Notion: The possibly unique, not really but maybe rather stupid, idea I had was a web service where a person visits the site, picks a commission from the artist via a shopping cart method, pays for it, and then the website acts as a middle man towards the artist. Per the artist's terms, 1/2 the payment is sent to them while the other 1/2 is held or the entire amount is kept on hold till the piece is finished. Once all is done, the website would send the amount to the artist via a bank deposit or method of their choice such as a check.

The stupidity part of the idea comes from several factors.

1. Security: I did some research and learned that I would need some serious, SERIOUS security to thwart people's attempts to gain access to the information. It would be a real honey pot for people to attack and get some juicy bits of data from. The information I read was probably just the little tip of the iceburg that's peaking from behind the first mountain i'm seeing.

2. Insurance: Would need to pay $$$ to have insurance in case something goes wrong and someone decides I need to be sued for my stupidity, idiocy, moronic idea, or however you wish to put it. This wouldn't be cheap either and would have to factor in with the $$$ it would take to keep the site running, and the profit/cut I would make as the service provider.

3. Payment Format: The hard part comes from the idea of how to get the artist the money because several people live all around the world with different rules, regulations, and taxes on monetary gain. Seen several contests, and participated in them, here in the US where they won't allow people outside the states to enter into them due to these various nuances. It's not hard to fathom me getting fined for tax evasion and/or providing an illegal service to people because I didn't pay the proper monetary amount towards a government.

3A. Continuing the payment problem, the other point comes from how to get the artist's their money. Paypal is electronic and anyone can access it with a computer. It would be rather easy to set something up with people who have bank accounts since you can do deposits, but I know there are some people who don't deal with banks. They go through something like Paypal to give them some better ease, not sure how Paypal works since I don't use it so I can't say too much.

Anyways, TL;DR summary of it all. I have an idea. The idea is a new service for artists. The notion has merit but is complicated to hell and back. I want help to kill this idea in my thick skull, so I don't even try to attempt it.

Sounds like some sort of escrow service

Think about all the people you need to hire to make and maintain the website. More people working on this = you needing to pay more $$$.

I guess it's better for the ego when you tell someone to convince you not to do something you never would have done. I like the idea.

I don't know anything about your own background or knowledge base, but it does seem like the people who start things like what you're describing are those who already have a background in either finance or internet security - preferably both I'd imagine. When you're dealing with money, it's generally a pretty good idea to be knowledgeable about this stuff. Especially if you're talking about anything to do with the internet and money - you're asking people to put a lot of faith into not only your security, but also your knowledge of and commitment to the service.

Doing the research to figure out what you'd need to make this feasible is a good first step, but the second step would likely be making a commitment to becoming an expert in the financial, legal, and security knowledge you'd require for this venture. It's one thing to know what you'd need, but you'd also need to be well versed in these areas before I'd recommend going any further with it. If you have that kind of commitment to dedicate to this idea, then I'd say go for it (because at the very least, knowledge gained is never wasted.) But otherwise, yeah - might be an interesting idea but without the expertise required to back this up, you're just treading water.

A) every business is complicated 'to hell and back'

I don't fully grasp what this service is, but you summarised that it 'has merit'. If that's true, and you're willing to risk the $$$$ for it, then start it. I don't really get why you need help to 'squash the idea', since if you're unwilling/unable to put the $$$$ into the idea, then that's the end of it.

C) I have a feeling this was less of a 'help me get rid of this idea' and more of a 'what do you think of this idea' since you went into it in great detail. If you really do think it has merit then I think you should go for it tbh (if you can). And I also think you shouldn't post potential business plans online...