>> Unfortunately, such an explanation often gets used as a crutch or an excuse for not aiming higher. How many years did individuals and small businesses have n

>> Unfortunately, such an explanation often gets used as a crutch or an excuse for not aiming higher. How many years did individuals and small businesses have no recourse from PayPal before Stripe, Square, et al. came along? Do we really want to have that long of a gap again just because the new incumbents can hide behind the same "it's hard" mentality as the old? What's the solution here? If I assume you aren't advocating legal requirements for how easy companies have to make verification (which, let's be honest, is a non-starter since laws generally make it harder to verify than easier), the only real solution is to call out companies that do this, which should in turn spur competition from those who think they can do better. It's unfortunate that it takes as long as it does, but I'm not sure if there is a better system. That said, writing this post is exactly the type of response that should encourage improvement and competition.