I don't get it.

Why does Stripe want to creatively ruin their reputation by venturing into crypto / blockchain?

I don't see anyone in the real world using blockchains at all.

I get AI as it was a real world paradigm shift, but I have never seen anything in this blockchain / crypto space that has reached 100-500 million users let alone 1 billion users, that isn't based on speculation.

I use crypto often. I can pay my server with it, I can pay my domains with it, I support my torrent ALT with it, I buy my drugs with it.

People use it for selling accounts, usernames, cheats and probably much more for it. Many of these also use Stripe (major cheat providers offer payments via Stripe and crypto, so why shouldn't Stripe also try to capture the value of Crypto payments?).

> I don't see anyone in the real world using blockchains at all.

Many companies are using stablecoins for cross border transactions, and for payouts in countries with volatile currencies. There's clear value for these use-cases.

Not to mention lower fees and 24/7 availability.

Dorsey and Tobi (Shopify CEO) are insane crypto true believers. It feels like they're trying to realize some ancap dream of Randian ubermensch controlling the whole economy and being answerable to noone.

Because money laundering and tax evasion are perpetually lucrative businesses. Since the Federal government is going to turn a blind eye then why not get in make some money.

Blockchains might not have hundreds of millions of users, but popular L1s have volumes in the many billions of dollars.

I use crypto for a savings account. Same model as your bank, except the rates are higher.

What reputation? They are known for being the most greedy payment provider and actively killing various other payment providers.

the entire crypto ecosystem is just sloshing around money for the sake of sloshing around money. no value delivered to end users