I truly don’t understand how Visa/MasterCard/etc can be pressured. They are basically infrastructure.
What’s someone going to do, stop using credit cards if they don’t stop a store that person doesn’t even patronize from selling morally hazardous goods?
I don’t get how these campaigns are even effective.
The thing is they are American corporations who care to much about their public image. I would be highly suprised if they national payment platforms would also accept this. (ideal/bankcontant/wero/etc)
They pressure payment processors through reputation damage and regulatory threats - these companies are terrified of being associated with anything that could trigger banking regulations or get them labeled as “enabling” problematic content in the media, its purely a risk management desicion for them.
That’s because 90% of cryptocurrency marketing consists of “THINK OF THE GAAAAAAINS YOU CAN MAKE!” instead of “You can use this to buy things without government censorship”.
The entire crypto industry has based itself around being a speculative asset, not a currency.
Which is really unfortunate. If you avoid the most popular coins (Bitcoin, Ethereum, etc), you avoid most of the scams and speculation and end up with a decent currency that respects your privacy and has low fees.
One benefit to payment processing for crypto is that there’s little in the way of material limitations on processing payments. The blockchain for a given coin already exists, your job as a processor is primarily to convert those on-chain transactions into and out of other currencies. Only requiring intervention at the point of entering or exiting dollars to and from the system changes a lot of the dynamics.
It’s pretty easy to switch between cryptocurrencies, so they can surely find an exchange that is friendly to their business. That’s way better than the credit card situation where there are only four major processors–Visa, Mastercard, Discover, and American Express–and only two of those actually matter.
Payment processors like Visa and Mastercard control a huge chunk of the market, which gives them a lot of say in what transactions are allowed. Even if you avoid credit, most debit cards go through those two companies, so they can restrict what transactions you can make.
With cryptocurrencies, there’s no restriction at the point of sale. Your problem seems to be that converting crypto to fiat could be problematic, and they’d potentially be stuck with “useless” currency. My point is that’s a much easier problem to solve:
if their exchange stops converting a given currency, they can convert to one they do accept
if their exchange bans their account (e.g. due to the nature of their business), they can switch exchanges
there are ATMs that dispense cash for crypto
if no exchange will work with them, they can make direct exchanges with regular people (i.e. “launder” the money)
they can also spend the currency directly
There are a ton of options to convert crypto to fiat, there are far fewer to select a different fiat payment processor.
I truly don’t understand how Visa/MasterCard/etc can be pressured. They are basically infrastructure.
What’s someone going to do, stop using credit cards if they don’t stop a store that person doesn’t even patronize from selling morally hazardous goods?
I don’t get how these campaigns are even effective.
The thing is they are American corporations who care to much about their public image. I would be highly suprised if they national payment platforms would also accept this. (ideal/bankcontant/wero/etc)
Probably just worried Trump will over regulate them if they don’t fall in line with the Christian Radicals.
They pressure payment processors through reputation damage and regulatory threats - these companies are terrified of being associated with anything that could trigger banking regulations or get them labeled as “enabling” problematic content in the media, its purely a risk management desicion for them.
Debit Cards, too.
Cryptocurrency is the solution here, and unfortunately that’s an unpopular take here.
That’s because 90% of cryptocurrency marketing consists of “THINK OF THE GAAAAAAINS YOU CAN MAKE!” instead of “You can use this to buy things without government censorship”.
The entire crypto industry has based itself around being a speculative asset, not a currency.
Which is really unfortunate. If you avoid the most popular coins (Bitcoin, Ethereum, etc), you avoid most of the scams and speculation and end up with a decent currency that respects your privacy and has low fees.
monero?
Yup, Monero is probably the best option. I’ve heard good things about Z-cash, and Bitcoin can work on the lightning network.
Not when exchanges still govern taking money out. They are businesses like everything else and will be just as risk averse
One benefit to payment processing for crypto is that there’s little in the way of material limitations on processing payments. The blockchain for a given coin already exists, your job as a processor is primarily to convert those on-chain transactions into and out of other currencies. Only requiring intervention at the point of entering or exiting dollars to and from the system changes a lot of the dynamics.
It’s pretty easy to switch between cryptocurrencies, so they can surely find an exchange that is friendly to their business. That’s way better than the credit card situation where there are only four major processors–Visa, Mastercard, Discover, and American Express–and only two of those actually matter.
None of what you said addresses the problem I mentioned.
Then I guess I don’t understand your problem.
Payment processors like Visa and Mastercard control a huge chunk of the market, which gives them a lot of say in what transactions are allowed. Even if you avoid credit, most debit cards go through those two companies, so they can restrict what transactions you can make.
With cryptocurrencies, there’s no restriction at the point of sale. Your problem seems to be that converting crypto to fiat could be problematic, and they’d potentially be stuck with “useless” currency. My point is that’s a much easier problem to solve:
There are a ton of options to convert crypto to fiat, there are far fewer to select a different fiat payment processor.