Things get crowded at the top. You thought Shopify was on a tear? Stripe has been the growing silent killer for the last many years.

Stripe is perhaps Shopify's biggest partner, but that creates risk. At some point real soon now, they will be a public company as witnessed from the $600M fundraise and now $95B valuation, about two-thirds of Shopify's $140B valuation.

One question that I've raised before and others contemplate, is -- does Stripe pose some kind of threat to Shopify?

Personally, I think Shopify has nothing to fear here.

Imagine Stripe becoming some combination of Paypal, Visa and Electronic Currency, and I think you come up with some idea that they don't need Shopify's puny marketshare (yes they are smaller now, but just keep watching) Stripe hasn't so far shown any proclivity to be outside the payment space either through statements, acquisitions, development, etc.

Right now I'm of the opinion that Stripe is no more a threat to Shopify than Visa is