Sweden's cashless society is no longer a utopia

Post by sizzle » Sat, Nov 10, 2018, 11:14 PM UTC

bamboozled wrote: post #135

eksemplar wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s festival payment done wrong, but cashless can be really great at festivals. In Denmark we have a festival called Skanderborg festival, and they build both your ticket and your cashless payment into the festival bracelet. You use the bracelet to pay everywhere, and you can add money to it a range of payment methods, from using a visa or similar in their app, to visiting one of the cash places where you can use…

The best payment experience I’ve had is cash. I pay for what I need and when I leave the festival I can still use my “credits” hassle free anywhere I like.

Post by clintonb » Sat, Nov 10, 2018, 11:17 PM UTC

alkonaut wrote: post #184

hannasanarion wrote: post #7

Why does there need to be a separate government issued digital currency? Presumably all of the private accounts that people are currently using are measured in Kr already, and the banks already operate at fractional reserve so the actual paper doesn't exist. As an American, I make about one cash purchase a year, but that doesn't mean that I'm not spending US Dollars. It seems to me that calling digital money "e-krona…

I want to be able to move my swedish currecy around without relying on visa/MasterCard and preferably not even banks. One solution is simply charging cards like public transit cards instead of using credit cards which are connected to an account. That’s where a cryptocurrency is needed.

Post by jakewins » Sat, Nov 10, 2018, 11:20 PM UTC

kristofferR wrote: post #97

I'm a Norwegian who went to a Swedish music festival last summer. I couldn't pay for a lot of things there, since the booths only accepted Swish (the only relevant Swedish mobile payment solution, it's a de facto monopoly). I couldn't sign up and use Swish on my phone, since it only accepts Swedish bank accounts. I couldn't borrow money from my Swedish friends either, since they didn't have cash (and it mostly wasn't…

Post by alkonaut » Sat, Nov 10, 2018, 11:24 PM UTC

clintonb wrote: post #293

alkonaut wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I want to be able to move my swedish currecy around without relying on visa/MasterCard and preferably not even banks. One solution is simply charging cards like public transit cards instead of using credit cards which are connected to an account. That’s where a cryptocurrency is needed.

Your public transit card is connected to an account. In this case the transit agency acts as the bank.

Post by ryacko » Sat, Nov 10, 2018, 11:26 PM UTC

avaika wrote: post #248

ploggingdev wrote: post #60

No mention about the privacy implications of having every transaction tracked? We're already at a point where pretty much every transaction is tracked and a cashless society makes being tracked a requirement to function in society. Is privacy even a topic of discussion with governments looking to go cashless? I still try and pay with cash wherever possible, but many offline/physical stores often require a phone numbe…

Good point. There is a rumor among my local IT fellows, that some banks who also run an insurance companies (or partner with some) share transaction information with insurance guys to help them identify whether discount is possible for a specific person or not. E.g. if someone frequently spends a lot of money in pubs, most likely that someone will have health issues sooner or later. So better to increase the insuranc…