The way we use money is in need of a change. One in the name of consumers and corporations.

There is a complex and overcrowded system needing a solution worthy of the 21st century.

Today’s payments landscape is full of intermediaries upon intermediaries. A never-ending list of companies waiting in line to get their fee on each transaction that is made. A slow, inefficient and expensive process.

On the one hand, they all need each other. On the other hand, they all trust no one but themselves.

We know of card networks like Visa and Mastercard, companies like Paypal and Stripe, processors like Verifone, acquiring banks, issuing banks, and too many other banks.

Yet, we do not know what they actually do.

We can get an idea of what it looks like from the image below. Once again, there are too many steps going on involving several players from all around the world. Totally different systems communicating to enable a simple $100 payment between a consumer and a merchant.

Source: Bloomberg, Glenbrook Partners, Plaid, BI Intelligence

I like the header: “Established players face potential disruption”.

Developed countries look for a solution and developing countries are desperate for one.

The situation gets even worse when considering remittances in underdeveloped countries. The poorest people seem to be the ones paying the highest fees. The intermediaries grow in number and, with them, prices rise; the processes become even more inefficient; and the money may take weeks to arrive. Everything adds up to a much worse scale.

By taking part on this long process, intermediaries have the power to impose high prices and set their own rules.

In 2008, during the Edward Snowden case, Paypal and other credit card processors decided to block contributions to WikiLeaks, so to make it impossible to donate. In other words, people were not able to use their money the way they wanted, when they wanted, on what they wanted, only because one of the many intermediaries decided so.

This is also the reason why Stripe is able to charge 2.9% plus 30 cents per card charge. Paypal is able to charge 5,4% plus $0,30 per transaction with extra fees of 4,5% for currency conversion.

In remittances, there are also high chargeback charges and banks keep on using the rather opaque, so called “hidden fees”.

Besides, we should not forget that most countries still use banknotes and coins on a daily basis, that are in physical terms just like the ones kids play with in the board game Monopoly.

It’s an outdated method, far from being user friendly and it comes with countless trips to ATMs, change and amount issues, plus security concerns, to name a few.