As a poker player who has long been blackballed and discriminated against by payment processors, I took note today when it was reported that Visa and Mastercard were blocking payments to adult websites. Whether poker, adult media content, or anything else, most adults are not going to simply allow corporations to dictate to them what how they are allowed to spend their own hard earned money. The hubris displayed by these payment processors, because of their (current) monopolistic hold on the payment processing industry, is going to end up being their downfall, as they force people who want the freedom to spend their own money into finding alternative payment systems (crypto). I wasn't the only one who had this same thought today. Prominent venture capitalist Paul Graham (know for his work on LISP, Y Combinator startup company and Hacker News site) made similar comments today on Twitter:
Ultimately, legacy finance is hastening its own demise by attempting to squeeze people with their authoritarian restrictions. In the prescient words of Princess Leia, "The more you tighten your grip, Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers."