Visa, Mastercard, and Stripe are backing an open stablecoin consortium. The playbook is older than it looks: own the new rail's governance before it owns you.
The four payment models compared: who holds tax, chargeback, and compliance liability as merchant of record, payfac, marketplace, or processor, and which fits.
What interchange fees are, who pays whom in the four-party model, why rates vary, what regulation changed, and how merchants realistically cut card costs.