Itch’s Payment Processing Dilemma

Building an in-house payment processor requires bank sponsorship, costly certifications, security teams, audits, and years of setup work.

High-risk industries like adult content face steep fees, large reserve requirements, and compliance hurdles with specialized MSPs like CCBill or Epoch.

Even a self-built processor or alternate high-risk provider would still be beholden to banks and card networks that can censor content under external pressure.

Alternative payment methods (ACH, wire transfers, crypto, gift cards) carry their own drawbacks in security, fees, speed, or regulatory scrutiny.

With minimal staff and resources, Itch cannot absorb these costs or complexities and needs external support rather than boycotts.