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5:00Processor vs Gateway vs Acquirer: What Stripe Actually Does
Three different companies used to sit between your "Pay" button and the money. Stripe quietly collapsed all three into one signup, and that, not the cool API, is the real product.
Before Stripe, "accepting cards online" meant stitching together three separate suppliers. The payment gateway moved *data*, the payment processor moved *messages* to the card networks, and a merchant acquirer (an acquiring *bank*) held your merchant account, took the financial risk, and put money in your bank. Each role is genuinely distinct, and confusing them is the single most common payments mistake.
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