Apple

I’m willing to bet this is what happens. Apple is well positioned to eliminate a large number of middlemen involved with credit card transactions.

They could potentially even become their own card company—competing with AMEX, MasterCard, etc. This has so far been impossible due to the grip everyone has on their part of the transaction chain—but if anyone has enough weight and resources to do it, it’s Apple.

Seems they are halfway there, considering you can pay for purchases using Apple Cash if the register accepts NFC payments. And considering any iPhone can act as a register using its NFC reader, they can just handle the transaction themselves if it’s between two Apple devices.

I’m know it’s more complicated than this, but I’ve suspected they’ve been playing the long game on this. Wedge themselves into how the market works currently, get their tech robust, then pull the rug out from everyone when ready.