[noir_lord]

To some extent.

You can write a nice layer over the top but fundamentally underneath payment processors are controlled via Visa and Mastercard.

That's one of the reason payment processors are so damn careful to descend like the wrath of an angry god when someone does/sells something Visa or Mastercard wouldn't like.

[comboy]

Exactly. But now we have Bitcoin. There's non-zero probability that banks will switch to it under the hood[0] and there's especially high incentive for small ones that want to do international transfers[1]. Once we have common protocol, you can use whatever payment processor you want, and unlike now, you can create one in your garage.

It's not hard to see that I'm biased towards Bitcoin, but even assuming it doesn't exist, sooner or later banking system as we know it today must change (dramatically). I would assume this will make companies like Visa and Mastercard much less relevant.

[0] - http://www.coindesk.com/bank-of-america-cryptocurrency-wire-...

[1] - https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/3ncat3/why_bitcoin...