The Money Atlas
Table of Contents
Styleguide
Table of contents
Introduction
Part I: Why Payments Exist (And Why They're Hard)
Chapter 1 — Money Is Not ValueChapter 2 — The First Payment NetworksChapter 3 — Settlements: The Rise of Financial Plumbing
Part II: The Modern Payment Stack
Chapter 4 — A Payment in Motion: The Canonical Payment FlowChapter 5 — Who's Who in Payments: Card Networks, Platforms & ProtocolsChapter 6 — Making Cards More Flexible: The Internet LayerChapter 7 — Where Web3 Enters the StoryChapter 8 — Geography Still Matters: Why Payments Look Different Everywhere
Part III: Cards: The Dominant Rail
Chapter 9 — How Card Payments Actually WorkChapter 10 — Debit vs Credit Cards: Same Rails, Different RulesChapter 11 — 3DS: Security, Friction, and PowerChapter 12 — Network Tokens, Vaults & CredentialsChapter 13 — Chargebacks, Fraud & DisputesChapter 14 — Merchant-Affiliate Card Programmes: Gift Cards, Co-Brand Prepaid & Card-Linked OffersArchive: extra
Part IV: Recurring, Subscriptions & Complex Billing
Chapter 15 — Card Dunning: When Payments Fail (And How to Get Them Back)Chapter 16 — Cards, Mandates & Stored Credentials: The Infrastructure Behind “Remember My Card”Chapter 17 — Invoicing, PAYG & Hybrids: Beyond Subscriptions
Part V: Alternative Payment Methods (APMs)
Chapter 18 — Bank Transfers, RTPs & Virtual AccountsChapter 19 — QR Codes, Proxies & Pay-by-ScanChapter 20 — Direct Debit, Mandates & Pull-Based PaymentsChapter 21 — Carrier Billing & Embedded Telco PaymentsChapter 22 — Wallets, Super Apps & Closed-Loop PaymentsChapter 23 — BNPL: Credit Masquerading as Payments
Part VI: Security, Compliance & Control
Chapter 24 — PCI-DSS: What It Is (and Isn't)Chapter 25 — Vaulting, Encryption & TokenizationChapter 26 — Risk, Compliance & Monitoring[ARCHIVED → Ch 24] Chapter 20 — Who's Watching the Vault?[ARCHIVED → Ch 24] Chapter 20 — 24 Questions or 328: Why Your Integration Choice Is a Compliance Decision[ARCHIVED → Ch 24] Chapter 20 — Shrinking the Blast Radius[ARCHIVED → Ch 24] Chapter 20 — Seven Lies Merchants Tell Themselves About PCI[ARCHIVED → Ch 24] Chapter 20 — From Countertop Terminal to SAQ D: One Coffee Shop's Compliance Odyssey[SUPERSEDED — corrupted formatting, safe to delete] Chapter 24 first draft
Part VII: Web3, Stablecoins & Crypto
Chapter 27 — What Crypto Actually Solves (and Doesn't)Chapter 28 — Stablecoins as Payment RailsChapter 29 — Stablecoin Cards: Where Crypto Meets VisaChapter 30 — Picking a Stablecoin Provider: It's the Operating Model, Not the Product
Part VIII: Orchestration & The Second Gilded Age
Chapter 31 — Why Orchestration ExistsChapter 32 — Routing, Retries & Smart FallbacksChapter 33 — Agentic Payments & the Protocol Wars[ARCHIVED → Ch 33] PRD — Agentic Payments and the Protocol WarsChapter 34 — Payments in a Fragmented World
Part IX: How to Use This Knowledge
Chapter 35 — If You're a FounderChapter 36 — If You're an OperatorChapter 37 — If You're an ArchitectChapter 38 — If You're a Consultant: Turning Payments Knowledge into a Practice
Part X: The Living System
Chapter 39 — What Changes, What Doesn'tChapter 40 — The Payments Change LogChapter 41 — The Reference Library
Appendices
Appendix B — Payment Flow DiagramsAppendix C — Comparison MatricesAppendix D — Regulatory Cheat SheetsAppendix E — Failure Mode Catalogue
References
Cards
News articles
Glossary
Sources
The Rail Is Not the Business — Agentic Payments, Mid-2026

News articles

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The Money Atlas — News articles