AFAIK, it has *never* been stated publicly that DOGE or Mr. Musk would get control of this most essential service, responsible for sourcing identity verification, etc.
There's no relationship between bureaucracy efficiency efforts and the digital service. Indeed, one would have expected DOGE to be injected into the Office of Personnel Management.
It's disconcerting to see such a mismatch between rationale and deployment, particularly for a new agency with no oversight in Congress.
He wants x.com to be a single monolith “everything” app, just like they have in China.
The idea is to control currency, authentication, identity, reputation, commerce and communication, and to make use of it mandatory.
also the whole "kitchen sink" image was probably a crude attempt at reinforcement
That was really the part I was most curious about. As the article points out, a lot of big tech has been trying to make their app economy "indispensable" to consumers, but competition seems to have thwarted that mostly. If Elon is saying he'll make it mandatory by other means, then I'm really curious to hear what he is saying on the subject.
To answer your question, though, Visa doesn't process payments for the dozen or so cannabis shops in my town and they are all thriving. I'm not saying it's common, or easy, but the answer is yes.