First Principles
The terminal was in their pocket all along.
In the Global South, you do not ship the merchant new hardware. You turn the device already in their hand into the checkout.
The moment a taco stand can take a card, a whole cash economy steps onto the grid.
Mexico City, from 2012. Clip started from what the small merchant already owned - a phone - and made it the card machine. No rented terminal, no bank branch: the customer taps a card or phone against the merchant's own handset and the sale clears. Hundreds of thousands of businesses now accept card payment this way, many taking their first ever.
The decision that mattered: turn the device already in the merchant's hand into the checkout, rather than shipping new hardware.
In the Global South, the checkout arrives on the phone the merchant already carries.
Source: Clip, 2025.