When I first looked at Plasma’s payments stack, what struck me was not the speed or fees, but the quiet attention to refunds, the thing crypto payments usually pretend does not exist. In traditional cards, refund rates sit around 5 to 10 percent in e-commerce, and chargebacks cost merchants 20 to 30 dollars each, which adds a hidden tax on every sale. Plasma is routing reversible intents on the surface, while underneath final settlement stays deterministic, and that texture creates space for merchants to offer refunds without trusting a custodian. Early signs suggest merchants testing it are seeing dispute rates below 2 percent, which is earned by design rather than policy. If this holds, refunds might become the foundation that makes crypto payments feel ordinary, and that is the part nobody is talking about.
