100$/mo? I would like to be able to build out an idea in a week or two and see if it goes anywhere. Making my own metered billing system to go with it would be an enormous project.

If it does go places, I'm happy to pay the big fees when it gets big.

IMHO this is why Stripe is so successful - picking up the customers while they're small. I'm with Stripe because Adyen et. al wouldn't talk to me at $100/mo but Stripe would, and many years later I'm still with Stripe running a large multiple of that through them (ok, via Paddle now..)

Can i ask why, in 2024, basic internet payment infrastructure isn't a commoditized resource shared across FANG/governments/ISP/banks? Why Does it have to be this way? Why must it be so convoluted for the merchants themselves? Why must it cost so much money just to be able to accept payments? Don't we all love payments? Don't transactions make the world go round? Are we already paying taxes on literally everything? Wouldn't it be in everyone's best interest is to make the simple act of doing business be as simple, frictionless, and barrierless as possible?

What is it exactly that you want Amazon, the US government, Verizon, and JPMorgan doing together that isn't done better by Stripe and its competitors right now?

For a discussion around payments this seems very similar to the "internet is a utility" discussion from decades past with a weird anti-capitalist / "a private company doing this is bad" vibes.

it costs $3000/month just to use Lago. this just seems insane but it's normalized by developers + big business.

It is easy. Give out your IBAN and a reference/invoice number, Wait for the money, then ship the product.