[smarri]

This is a great question because there should be a more cost effective way. The current payment rails have a number of counterparties all taking a cut. I assume Stripes process is something like; stripe take a fee, stripes sponsoring bank takes a fee, the card network takes a fee, the other parties bank takes a fee. Card networks are more expensive than bank to bank payment networks (e.g. ACH in the USA, Bacs Direct Debit in the UK, SEPA for Eurozone). While there are the same number of parties taking a cut, the costs are cheaper. Plus payment companies get better rates based on bigger volumes. The disruption could be eliminating these middle men one by one, at the end of the day, money doesn't really change hands, it's just data being exchanged. And the banks accounts are settled at a net basis at the Central Bank.