A good way to operate this is to keep using a regular payment processor for checkout, but use this for payouts, so you can still accept cards and enjoy fee savings (there's a prompt on the homepage that will set it up for you just like this).
Zoneless is completely independent of Stripe, you do not need Stripe approval or a Stripe account to run it. We have some beginner guides in our docs for handling topping up / exchanges. I use Kraken+, which is about $5/month and removes trading fees.
Would it work to also charge a modest refundable fee (say $1 per month) from sellers via Stripe or someone else who does KYC, and then use that as a base of "this person has been flagged as known" to solve most KYC concerns in this post?
Yes, this is exactly what it does! To confirm, Zoneless does have KYC built in - its a bring your own API key system that plugs right in, and you get 500 free verification checks per month via Didit. There are guides in the docs on how this all works.
very good thanks again for your replies ive never dealt with crypto hence these questions i think stablecoins and zoneless makes a lot of sense, stripe connect is very expensive.
for keeping regular payment processor for checkout....is that stripe? aren't they looking and evaluating your marketplace and then saying yes or no still ? or do you mean to use a high risk processor?
You can use whichever you like - but yes you will have to abide by their terms.
Zoneless has an open-source checkout to accept payments/subscriptions via stablecoins if you wanted a completely self-hosted alternative. I am very aware that not everyone wants to pay via stablecoins yet, though. People are very open to being paid with them, hence why it works well for payouts.