The only thing that endangers freedom here is the fact that there are centralized payment processors in the first place.
There's an existing cure for that particular disease: Bitcoin.
There's an existing cure for that particular disease: Bitcoin.
See e.g. https://support.bitpay.com/hc/en-us/articles/115003105543-Ca...
The downside of not using commercial "off-chain" processors for Bitcoin or most true decentralized cryptocurrencies is that latency of a proper, classic, fully secure, "on-chain" transaction is something like up to 15 minutes. At least it was that much last time I looked at it.
I mean, you claim a system of voluntary, consensual payments that people can decide or not to use vs. formal channels depending on their need for avoiding politically charged bullshittery and financial censorship of all sorts is somehow worse than... the long arm of major governments and their corporate partners to restrict whatever they please for whatever political reasons they please at any time?
Truly, the irrational crypto hatred by some on this site is the stuff of idiot parody.
The solution is not blockchain currencies. European credit card transaction costs are a fraction of what they are in the US because US regulators just sat back and allowed Mastercard and VISA to establish a duopoly.
In much of the rest of the world it's also possible to near-instantly wire-transfer funds to pay for things, at negligible cost. In the US, everything is forced to go through the federal reserve, is expensive, and slow.
We are the laughing stock of the rest of the world. The banks have tried to set up alternatives. Zelle is a good example, but Zelle's most annoying problem is that you can only have one account per phone number or email address.
This isn't entirely accurate, there is a private clearing house that supports instant payments in the United States.
https://www.theclearinghouse.org/payment-systems/CHIPS https://www.theclearinghouse.org/payment-systems/rtp