I have been curious about this idea for a long time. Consider the situation the USA is in right now. What percentage of all transactions which occur in the US

I have been curious about this idea for a long time. Consider the situation the USA is in right now. What percentage of all transactions which occur in the US economy right now pass through a payment processor? I would imagine the majority, and growing. And payment processors don't just charge for their services. They charge a percentage of the size of the transaction. Their cost to provide the service of moving numbers from one place to another over a wire does not increase for larger numbers, yet they still insist that the parties in the transaction pay more to move larger numbers. This makes payment processors a de-facto taxing body and gives them at least as much control over the monetary supply in a society as any central bank. If the Federal Reserve decided to take actions that private banks or payment processors disagreed with, it is entirely within their legal power to adjust the rates they charge and counteract the central bank. This is very dangerous. It's terribly unfortunate that modern government is so packed with nibshits and the clinically paranoid that they would never again back a currency which offers the same features as cash (untraceable, unfreezable, etc), but even without those, just escaping from the tyranny of payment processors might be worth it.