@txt_file @lina the Problem with #PayPal is that they have NO REAL #COMPETITION, so being an asshole corporation has no real consequences.

I mean, look at the state of #OnlinePayments:

• #TradFinance fearmongered regulators and institutions into #Monero #delistings and bans.

• #wero doesn't even get mandatory acceptance within the #SEPA-Area and doesn't support non-SEPA accounts, thus is less useful than #UnionPay, #AliPay & #WeChatPay in #Germany.

• The 3 before-mentioned providers won't even offer their services for #EU citizens/non-"P.R." #China residents.

• #WesternUnion, #RIA, #MoneyGram, etc. are absurdly expensive and don't work well nor can be integrated as #OnlinePayment.

• #PerfectMoney, like #Mir, is basically useless outside #Russia & #CIS member states.

• Same goes for all the other national providers like #SOFORTÜBERWEISUNG (absorbed by #Klarna, basically only seen in Germany), etc.

PayPal OWNS the market for #payments harder than Autodesk for Engineering Software and Adobe for Creative Software because #regulators like @EUCommission refuse to regulate!

• People who have neither #CreditCards (from the 2,5 Oligopolists from the USA: #Visa, #MasterCard & #AMEX) nor a PayPal account are basically "banned from #OnlineShopping"!

• #Stripe can't even do #WireTransfer or #Widthdrawals from SEPA bank accounts!

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The other is when I ordered a TV, after my old one died after 13 years. I selected "Trade up" collection that included a £150 discount, but it automatically added an incompatible lesser discount at the final payment stage, and I lost the collection and the discount. It wasn't transparent.

I've asked the support folks nicely, twice, explaining that I had specified the collection with discount (...). Anyway, I hope for better.

#LG #TV #UK #consumer #onlinePayments

For years I've been meaning to do a deep dive on digital payments (what people call "FinTech"). I intended to achieve 2 main things;

1) Map out the fundamentals structure of payments stacks

2) Look at different payment services (eg OpenCollective, Stripe, Visa) and locate them in the right layer(s) of the stack

@trysdyn has done a fantastic job of the first part here, and in doing so, some of the second part;

https://voidfox.com/blog/payment_processor_fun_2025_making_your_own_msp/

#OnlinePayments

@alcinnz @echo_pbreyer @Coffee

Almost all of the online payment providers you interact with is backed by one of a handful of giant payment processors (eg PayPal and Stripe, or in China, AliPay and WeChatPay). That are essentially an API between you and the credit card company your card belongs to. That are, in turn. basically APIs between you and the company that hosts your bank accounts.

In other words, companies are squeezing on chokepoints between you and your bank.

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#payments #OnlinePayments #ChokePointCapitalism