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I don't know of a better proxy for brand strength but there is this: https://www.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=Bitcoin,stripe https://www.google.com/tren

I don't know of a better proxy for brand strength but there is this: https://www.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=Bitcoin,stripe https://www.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=Bitcoin,str... Consider that the spikes in bitcoin are often about scandals in the news with a concerted effort by the state regulated media over the past half decade to brand bitcoin as the tool of criminals and terrorists... and still I think pretty much everybody realizes that most bitcoin users are neither criminals nor terrorists.

milligrade 10y ago
And if Stripe wanted to, they could've decided to accept nearly all businesses, but restrict some of the businesses to BitCoin only, as Bitcoin does not apply tough restrictions on partners. And many of the other "problematic" businesses aren't banned by Visa or MC at all... Stripe is flat-out lying when they pretend that every Stripe banned business is banned because of their partners. No, Stripe's actions make clear that they care more about building a big, profitable, us-based company than they care about facilitating these niche "problem" customers. Which is fine. They have correctly determined that these other lines of business are worth one pandering blog post in which they pretend that there was absolutely no way for them to serve these markets (an obvious lie), and they go about their business. It's a smart play. I hope I'd make the same play, if I were in their shoes. Build profitable products for the big market, write a blog post for the tiny one. And maybe, someday, once the big market is sufficiently secure, add the incremental revenue from the tiny market.
- lcarlson 10y ago
  No they're not lying that their partners do not want them to touch high risk merchant accounts. At the end of the day, stripe answers to a sponsoring bank, which is highly regulated and are usually very rush averse.

milligrade 10y ago

And if Stripe wanted to, they could've decided to accept nearly all businesses, but restrict some of the businesses to BitCoin only, as Bitcoin does not apply tough restrictions on partners. And many of the other "problematic" businesses aren't banned by Visa or MC at all... Stripe is flat-out lying when they pretend that every Stripe banned business is banned because of their partners. No, Stripe's actions make clear that they care more about building a big, profitable, us-based company than they care about facilitating these niche "problem" customers. Which is fine. They have correctly determined that these other lines of business are worth one pandering blog post in which they pretend that there was absolutely no way for them to serve these markets (an obvious lie), and they go about their business. It's a smart play. I hope I'd make the same play, if I were in their shoes. Build profitable products for the big market, write a blog post for the tiny one. And maybe, someday, once the big market is sufficiently secure, add the incremental revenue from the tiny market.

lcarlson 10y ago
No they're not lying that their partners do not want them to touch high risk merchant accounts. At the end of the day, stripe answers to a sponsoring bank, which is highly regulated and are usually very rush averse.