The whole point was to be decentralized, and now we
have Visa, Mastercard, Apple, Google, Amazon and Cloudflare
Visa and MC are by far the most powerful forces at work here. You can start an online business without the others, but you can't do it without getting paid.
Currently, for most of the world, that means you need to take credit cards.
It's also crucial for us to note that Visa and MC don't care about porn for puritanical reasons; they're not the root cause of this particular issue. They care only about money.
People buy adult content and frequently dispute the charges, which is a headache and eats profits.
I'd tweak it slightly. Either you need MC/Visa or you need ad revenue. Though if your business is one the duopoly won't touch I dunno how many advertisers with real money will touch you.
So why not just up processing fees on those transactions to the point that they're profitable. If Visa/MC made a new processing code that all adult platforms were required to use, and charged a 10% fee, they would make plenty of money. I have to conclude that this is more than just a profit consideration.
Doesn't matter what they set their fees to. If a jury decides that Visa/MC is liable for the exploitation of a minor, they will be instructed to assess punitive damages, and the whole point of punitive damages it to make it hurt for the losing party. No tweaking of the transaction fees will prevent that.
I have to conclude that this is more than just a profit consideration.
Maybe? But in general they're pretty morally agnostic - they don't go shun other "controversial" businesses. Except the cannibus business here in the US, but that's because it's technically still illegal at the federal level.
Currently, for most of the world, that means you need to take credit cards.
It's also crucial for us to note that Visa and MC don't care about porn for puritanical reasons; they're not the root cause of this particular issue. They care only about money.
People buy adult content and frequently dispute the charges, which is a headache and eats profits.