It's funny when we picked this episode I was like oh this is going to be pretty down the middle and easy and then of course as we get into the research as always it's like oh nope big story here.

There's always a story. Who got the truth?

Is it you, is it you, is it you, who got the truth now?

Is it you, is it you, is it you, is it you, is it you?

Sit me down, say it straight, another story on the way.

Who got the truth?

Welcome to season 13 episode 4 of Acquired,

the podcast about great technology companies and the stories and

playbooks behind them. I'm Ben Gilbert. I'm David Rosenthal. And we are your hosts. Today we tell the story

of an absolutely incredible system. You can show up anywhere in the

entire world with a piece of plastic and transact for anything you want in any

currency. The merchant doesn't need to know you or trust you and you do not need to know or trust

the merchant. And Visa, along with just one other competitor, Mastercard, has tirelessly spent decades

stitching together all the banks, merchants, and the relationships

with consumers to make this possible. Now this is just the rosy side of the story and

merchants may harbor far less rosy feelings about

visa given how much of their profits go to interchange fees but the duality of

the story is what makes it so interesting to understand. Today we will explore how the whole thing came to be and try to understand the value that the credit and debit card system creates compared with how much it captures and by whom in what situations.

So here are some astonishing stats on Visa.

It is the 11th most valuable company in the world. It is worth more than any bank in the world,

including every bank involved in creating it. Visa's brand is among the very most

trusted in the world associated with reliability and security.

...