-- "Visa and Mastercard are the world’s dominant payment processing networks. By collecting 2–3% transaction fees everytime someone swipes a debit or credit car

-- "Visa and Mastercard are the world’s dominant payment processing networks. By collecting 2–3% transaction fees everytime someone swipes a debit or credit card, they pulled in $24B in 2021" "There were 343 million Visa credit cards in circulation in the U.S. and 798 million Visa credit cards in circulation outside of the U.S. at the end of September 2020" "By the second quarter of 2021, there were about 742 million Visa debit cards in circulation in the United States and over 1.8 billion cards worldwide" "There were 249 million Mastercard credit cards in the U.S. and 725 million cards in the rest of the world at the end of March 2021" "There were over 1.46 billion MasterCard debit cards in circulation worldwide by the end of the fourth quarter of 2021" The 24B looks staggering - however in my opinion when you put it in the context of ubiquity - it doesn't seem so insane - given they integrate with banks - provide support - enable payments in countries travelers don't bank - etc - is the lightning network really going to provide that much more bang for buck? Not trying to be a credit card company apologist here - however I'm grateful when I can use my chase debt card in Istanbul -- (sources: statista & creditcards.com) --