Stripe and Block could bypass credit card rails
A potential combination of Stripe, Block, and PayPal could create a vertically integrated end-to-end payment network that directly competes with Visa and Mastercard.
The argument
The speakers argued that combining Stripe's massive merchant base with PayPal's 400 million consumer accounts and Block's point-of-sale infrastructure would allow them to bypass traditional credit card rails. This would enable 'on-us' transactions, allowing them to offer steep discounts to merchants and pressure the traditional duopoly.
The thesis, stress-tested
✓ What validates it
- ✓Stripe or Block offering direct-to-consumer payment options that bypass card networks
- ✓Merchants adopting alternative payment rails in exchange for lower transaction fees
▸ Risks discussed
- ▸Consumers may resist changing their preferred payment habits
- ▸Antitrust scrutiny if regulators define the market narrowly around merchant APIs rather than global payments
Hear it yourself
"So, you know, over 400,000,000 active consumer accounts. So you're right, Shamath, that if if somehow you could combine the merchant relationships with all those consumer accounts, then bypass the credit card networks, because there'd be a lot in theory, there could be a lot more on us transactions."
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