[iamnothere]

Obviously, centralized is centralized whether it’s private or public. Both are bad.

However, parallel centralized private systems with strong safeguards are slightly better than a single public system. But only slightly. Public centralized payments create turnkey totalitarianism, which is never a good idea.

What the industry badly needs is antitrust enforcement.

[bediger4000]

There are virtually no safeguards around Visa and MasterCard. Emphatic agreement about antitrust enforcement. It's crystal clear at this time that market forces don't prevent monopolies.