It's a massive chicken & egg issue. Cutting out Visa/MC and offering lower payment processing costs ONLY benefits the merchant while Square would need to try to

It's a massive chicken & egg issue. Cutting out Visa/MC and offering lower payment processing costs ONLY benefits the merchant while Square would need to try to convince consumers to obtain its inferior payment cards. The other problem is that US cardholders are addicted to their rewards which the merchants are essentially funding. You're kind of stupid not to have a rewards card because you are basically subsidizing someone else's rewards and not partaking.