Beyond Cards: Local Payment Rails and the QR Codes on Them

Why half the world's payments never touch a card: how each country's local rail got built, why the QR code is only its top layer, and what that means for Visa and Mastercard.

Reading Payment Systems chapters 1-12 first will help, but is not required. You do need to know what clearing, settlement, and interchange mean.

0. Course Map
1. The Three Assumptions of a Card: A Terminal, a Credential, and an Interchange Fee
2. A Sticker Beats a Terminal: What a QR Payment Actually Is
3. China: How Two Companies Took a Country's Checkout
4. India's UPI: What Happens After You Set the Fee to Zero
5. Brazil's Pix: When the Central Bank Builds It Itself
6. Southeast Asia: Five Countries, Five Rails, and Only Then the Codes
7. Five Rails Side by Side: Who Pays the Bill
8. The Word "Wallet" Has Been Misleading You
9. Local Methods Without a QR Code: The Netherlands, Poland, and the Convenience Store
10. Buy Now, Pay Later: Why Merchants Accept Double the Card Fee
11. Why Stripe and Adyen Integrate a Hundred Payment Methods
12. Are the Card Networks in Danger? Part One: Where Cards Genuinely Lost
13. Are the Card Networks in Danger? Part Two: Why the Financials Don't Show It
14. A Model That Predicts: What It Takes to Displace Cards
15. Appendix A: A Map of the World's Local Rails — What Sits Under the Form Factor