All this blockchain stuff didn’t solve any actual problem, we are still paying fees to a duopoly for basically all global payments
We really need something better, in Italy for example the gov removed sanctions for people not accepting credit cards, one reason being Visa fees, if there was an actual alternative we would use it
What I'm getting at here is the reality of the real world - fraud. Visa, MC, etc have had zero liability for fraudulent transactions since forever at this point. I understand that chargebacks can be an issue for sellers but the fact remains that most of the fraud in the space is by sellers, stolen cards/credentials, etc. Consumer fraud liability was initially legislated by the US and capped at $50 (max) way back in 1978. Consumers (who have significantly more exposure, numbers, political capital, sway, etc) have benefited from these protections for decades and they simply won't accept going back to the days of "sorry the merchant ripped you off, sorry your card/credentials/etc were stolen, etc - you're SOL, your money is gone, and you have no recourse". On twitter, crypto forums, etc (the only place to go when these realities hit with crypto) these victims get a very helpful "hope you learned your lesson"!
These costs are baked in to the merchant fees, transaction fees, etc. For merchants, the occasional chargeback (valid or not) is also baked into the "cost of doing business" just like all other forms of shrinkage (employee theft/fraud, shoplifting at physical locations, etc). Many of them (like Amazon, I believe) have terms that essentially say "Ok we're bound by law/Visa/MC/etc and you can do a chargeback but we have an internal process for these kinds of things and if you bring the hammer of a chargeback we'll ban you from our marketplace". The (potential) issues surrounding that approach are left for another discussion...
I'm not advocating for Visa, MC, etc and there absolutely are very real problems with them. However, this goes back to an observed issue with crypto - that the crypto ecosystem is running towards replacing our current imperfect system with one (that appears) to be even worse right out of the gates.
There are of course other issues that would still need to be addressed, like merchants sending fraudulent goods, but if we could build stuff to handle that on top of a foundation that's actually secure, we might be better off.
I wonder, though, if there’s an inevitable tradeoff between efficiency and decentralization? The credit card companies are highly centralized, but their services are so efficient and reliable that they’re practically invisible.