Cody Wilson, famous for making the first usable fully plastic 3D
printed handgun and for his new project
“Ghost Gunner” which mills metal lower receivers (the milling
machine itself if of course not a weapon, and what it makes is not
itself legally a weapon!) for AR-15s, informs me today that his
online payment processor
Stripe has decided that his companies, all of them, qualify as
forbidden “weapons and munitions; gunpowder and other explosives”
services. This includes the Ghost Gunner and Defense Distributed.
See Stripe’s very impressive list of companies they (or their
“banking partners”) refuse to do business
with, including virtual currency, anything they think violates
IP in any way, fantasy sports leagues, marijuana or tobacco
businesses, or e-cigs, pornography, bankruptcy lawyers, airlines
cruises or timeshares or prepaid phone cards; and any legal
substance that emulates an illegal substance, like salvia.
Wilson tells me Stripe isn’t superefficient at enforcing these
rules, and some explicit gun businesses have told him they do use
Stripe and get away with it, though most in the gun world are aware
they are not welcome with the processing company.
In correspondence with Wilson, a Stripe representative referred
to “pushback from our financial partners” regarding his businesses
as triggering the end of their relationship.
“Stripe is a big startup that’s supposed to promote
‘disruption.'” WIlson notes, but obviously wants to do so only with
“minimal intensity. Obviously if something is too distruptive banks
don’t like the risk. I’ve been completely excluded from
the Bay Area payment processing universe.”
This is yet another reason why the world most definitely needs
another of Wilson’s passions, Bitcoin: a means to transmit
value online that depends in no way on censorious intermediaries
like Stripe and their banking partners.
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