Is VISA a colossus on clay feet?

Hahaha.

Have you heard of Boku, Dwolla, ISIS, MCX, PingIt, PayM, Zong... and what happened to their grand ambitions of beating Visa (and MasterCard) and hitting the jackpot?

If somebody failed trying to do something, there is no reason not to try again mainly because the jackpot is still there.

There have many attempts to bring alternatives to Visa and MasterCard. As a former employee of both entities I know they are a market force with lots of money and a brand that is trusted. To start a new global brand and technology platform would cost billions of dollars. Technology has indeed taken quantum leaps. If they had to do it all over again their solutions would much more superior than the current two message system. i remember when it took 4 weeks for an international transaction to clear. Both have made significant steps in their authorization and clearing systems. But much more needs to be done. I would advise both Visa and MasterCard to build their next generation solutions using a single message while at the same maintaining in parallel their two message system for some period of time.There are newer technology solutions in the market; e.g.. Faster Payments.

It's a free world, there's nothing stopping anyone from doing anything but, in the real world of business, it's customary for companies to do more of what works and less of what does not work, so that they maximize shareholder value and / or stop themselves from squandering away their limited resources and die. 

So, yes, even if the jackpot is still there, it doesn't mean new companies should waste time trying to do something that killed so many of their ilk earlier. Espeially since there are so many other jackpots out there offering better chances of success.  

In the extreme case, despite all of the above, if a company is hellbent on being delusional, the community can avoid platitudes on the way of the company committing harakiri and, instead, at least provide some guidance, however impractical it might be, for the company to achieve success. As I'd done in my comment below Mastercard bids to bypass own rails with Pay by Bank app promotion:

"A new PSP with 2X Rewards and 0.5X MDR of Visa / MasterCard will be highly disruptive. It won't be profitable. But that hasn't stopped VCs from funding disruptive startups."

It'll work in the EU as the EU have had the schemes in their sights for some time - hence SEPA.  SEPA was a fundamental building block toward this and regulation (PSD2) helps their case. But there's where it then becomes difficult. Like it or not the card schemes are the only truly global networks. And yes, there were built on top of various bank networks but they joined them and provided a convenience and trust through their scheme rules. Tech is fallible but people are too and the rules address both.  That's why they are such huge global brands and all of these factors are huge - for the consumer - an interested party that wasn't mentioned in the article. Can Visa be toppled? Yes.  Will they be?  Well, a bit behind their competitor MasterCard, but they are trying.  They don't own rails as MasterCard do. They have tried to make significant acquisitions to help but have been thwarted.  So the jury is out but there'a long game to play and the consumer has a lot of sway.  They don't change habits or likes so easily.  The young can and do but will their new habits be life long?  And do they have the power of money in comparison to the more habitually entrenches older generations? 

Payments for consumers and merchants is not only about technology or even switching a payment order from ine bank to another. What is good enough for a simple credit transfer is not sufficient for a payment at a merchant. The consumer/merchants payment systems need risk distribution in order to protect both consumers and merchants and the payment service providers involved need to assume the risks - and charge for that value. Furthermore exception handling is needed since a consumer should not accept "finality of payment" rule if paid to a merchant that does not perform the paid and agreed. The consumer needs to get a refund promise form somebody one can trust if an unwilling merchant does not deliver and does not voluntarily pay back. Merchants need to get the assurance that they get paid when they deliver to the customer as agreed. Such guarantees need risk management in order to keep risk costs on resonable level. The payment scheme needs to enforce the rules on the participants. All this in a x-border world with payments between and in 200 countries with different currencies, legal systems, languages, culture... So far techniólogy is not showing any signs of resolving these fundamental requirements. Look at EU - 27 member states that have talked on establishing Sepa since 2002, and so far inter-bank credit transfer has been launched and the inter-bank instant credit transfer is being launches now. These simple credit transfer solutions work in the inter-bank space and do not have standardized end user interfaces nor risk distribution solutions & exception handling processes comparable with the "dinosaurs" Visa and Mastercard. Also the payments legislation hinders the account to account type of transaction to match the global card schemes. EPI is the first serious attempt in the EU to build a copy of the global card schemes. The question is - is a copy good enough or should it be better in order to become a success?