At one time, cryptocurrencies appeared to be the most likely candidate for disrupting this model. In theory, they're much safer and easier than credit cards for

At one time, cryptocurrencies appeared to be the most likely candidate for disrupting this model. In theory, they're much safer and easier than credit cards for everyday payments. If I want to set up a donation on my blog, for example, all I need to do is paste my wallet address at the bottom and people can send me money! It's easy for me because I don't need to sign up with some middleman payment processing service or worry about chargebacks, and it's secure for the patron because they don't need to reveal a sensitive CC/bank account number to some random website. Of course, high transactions fees, price instability, stablecoin instability, and poor UX have put huge roadblocks in that vision. However it is clear to me is that the fundamentals of that process will be the building blocks of the successor to the bank/card model: public/private keys with no middleman. Exactly how that evolves is less clear. Perhaps something similar to Facebook's Libra/Diem will become popular, maybe it's a CBDC, or maybe USDC on some ZK rollup.