"Stripe for vice business" wouldn't work because the payment processors are still beholden to VISA and MasterCard. This company would also have to create a whole new credit card in which majority of people are using.
You'd probably need to create a network of people that accepted physical cash and gave you crypto in return, sort of like localbitcoins.
I guess you could buy a chain of Bureau de Change outlets and have them convert cash to bitcoin, monero etc. I'm surprised this isn't already happening to be honest - they have all the infrastructure and licenses already.
I’m sure if you’re a store with a bunch of Karen’s asking if you accept an OF card for payment, you’d probably reach out to OF to figure out how to get that money that just walked out the door…
Isn't that how all payment methods get started? Apple Pay wasn't just randomly accepted, people asked and when the answer was "no," they walked out the door.
Not successfully for several hundred years, no. Bottom-up creation of payment methods isn't a thing. Please take a look at the history of the Diner's Club card, and compare it to Amex.
Apple Pay is widely accepted because of three things, ordered here from least to most important: Apple applying pressure on the processors to accept it, paying them when necessary, and the fact that giant card data breaches like Target and Home Depot meant that the whole market needed to move away from magstripe anyway. People taking grass roots action was not a part of the change in any meaningful way (at least partly because it never happened).
There's this very popular cryptocurrency story that individual people have power in this market. The problem with that narrative is that virtually nobody cares enough this issue because it's just not that important. Sorry.
