Keystone Mutualism
Visa is a keystone mutualist platform - connecting issuers and acquirers who couldn't build global acceptance alone.
Some species create disproportionate impact by providing services that connect or enable many other species. These keystone mutualists don't dominate the ecosystem by abundance, but their removal eliminates critical functions that many species depend on. A single pollinator species might service dozens of plant species. If that pollinator disappears, all those plants face reproductive failure. Fig wasps are the extreme case - each fig species is pollinated by a single wasp species in an obligate mutualism.
Business Application of Keystone Mutualism
Visa is a keystone mutualist platform - connecting issuers and acquirers who couldn't build global acceptance alone. The platform creates bilateral market network effects: more chip designs attract more software, more software attracts more chip designs. Visa sits at the nexus enabling transactions that wouldn't otherwise occur.