In the EU the fees are limited to 0.3%, and in other areas (e.g. the UK) it's 1%. As a card holder I'm pretty happy to pay a ~0.3% service fee to know that I have recourse with a merchant, for example.
> I just want an efficient low-cost barrierless payment network.
Whats low cost to you then?
I am guessing the good old unregulated free market of the US of A: https://www.valuepenguin.com/what-credit-card-processing-fee...
There, banks and credit card companies offer huge perks and cash-back to card holders. That money must come from somewhere, and that's from the transaction fees paid by merchants (and transitively customers, as merchants still need to make a profit). AMEX has even higher transaction fees, which is why some businesses don't accept it.
The situation is now at an idiotic local maximum: if I don't use one of these cashbacks cards, I am losing money paying for my neighbor's air miles, as I don't get a discount anyway. You don't need a "technofix" for that, you need regulations that cap interchange fees like the EU.
> AMEX has even higher transaction fees, which is why some businesses don't accept it.
Given the opacity of the fees (or "discounts") as amex calls them, I don't know how to believe this. Lots of retailers in the EU don't accept them, yet amex are bound by the same interchange limits as Visa and Mastercard. How much of this is actually true and how much is "well it was true 30 years ago and I've not questioned it"
> You don't need a "technofix" for that, you need regulations that cap interchange fees like the EU.
Agreed. And using crypto to limit network fees is a terrible idea. I just had a quick look and the current gas fee for ethereum is $20!
[0] https://www.mastercard.us/content/dam/public/mastercardcom/n...
PSPs in the EU/EEA charge around 1% overall, a bit more to small businesses (for instance SumUp), and a bit less to the really big retailers that have more bargaining power.