why would verizon block it?

All the US carriers besides Sprint are backing the ISIS payment system. They've invested tens of millions of dollars into ISIS. They aren't going to let Google walk in and eat their lunch when they have the power (granted by Google ironically enough) to simply shut them out of the market. You can still side-load Google Wallet but it's DOA without wide support so it doesn't really matter.

Extractive vs. Inclusive. They say failed states' institutions are characterized by the former.

Shouldn't FCC or DOJ try to stop that? It's kind of anti-competitive...

I think you didn't really get to the motivation, which is simply that the carriers want a piece.

unfortunately unlikely.

every horrible thing in history, every holocaust and slave trade, every excruciating death,

is probably playing out countless times over throughout the universe.