[Sambdala]

"Some guy in Arizona can set himself up online, sign up for Stripe, have no set fees, and accept a payment from someone in Germany (or NY or Australia) that afternoon."

Anyone can take payments using Bitcoin in less time than it takes to sign up for and implement the Stripe API (I would know; I've done both), and you don't have to have a bank account in an approved jurisdiction in order to do so.

They can either do this by using the technology directly or using an intermediary such as Coinbase.

"Bitcoin focuses in on those areas where it has a strategic advantage over cards and ignores those where it doesn't."

Thankfully Bitcoin doesn't care what it's used for, and there will probably be people trying to implement a Bitcoin solution for all these areas; the ones that find a niche will survive, and the ones that don't will fail. Either way, we'll (in theory) end up with the services that Bitcoin is suited for, and the ones that it isn't suited for will continue to use more traditional methods.

[sergiotapia]

Yes but you don't have the incredible safety net of using a bank. Bitcoin seems really unsafe and I keep hearing of people stealing wallets and large sums from Mt.Gox