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Swedes rebelling against a cashless society (2018)

bbc.com

161–170 of 338 posts

Re: Swedes rebelling against a cashless society (2018)

#161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because that’s not possible – you can’t have multiple cards with the same name on the same account. I know, I’ve tried after I’ve spent the entirety of january without without a card due to losing one (and the bank fucking up the replacement).

My bank lets me do that, not sure why your bank wouldn't let you. Also these aren't really problems with a cashless society, they are problems with a partially cashless society. Society will fix these issues very quickly when there are no workarounds, like making sure that everyone can have backup cards for example.

I don't believe that they'll get fixed. It'll just be filed under "huh, that's terrible!"

Re: Swedes rebelling against a cashless society (2018)

#163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does a cashless society do when the power/internet/etc. goes out (whether due to a natural disaster or otherwise)?

Cash is not very useful if the power is out either, as for internet you just have to make it as reliable as power.

You do realize that cash was in use before electricity as a utility was a thing, right? And that food is actually more critical for survival than electricity, right? And that you can exchange cash for food without electricity, right? And that blackouts is a thing that actually happens, right?

Re: Swedes rebelling against a cashless society (2018)

#164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It wasn't fully manual: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_and_the_Holocaust

I never thought I'd see "IBM" and "holocaust" in the same sentence, but here I am.

They're not exactly advertising it =)

Just like Hugo Boss don't mention their Nazi Uniform Design Division in investor calls.

Re: Swedes rebelling against a cashless society (2018)

#165

Its a bold headline, but as the article explains, its not actually very many Swedes who seem to be 'rebelling'. People I know are trying to get pensioners they are 'responsible for' to stop carrying and using cash, as its far higher risk. I don't personally know of anybody rebelling against the cashless society, not in any age group. Its not even talked about. On the other hand, 'do you take swish' (a phone-to-phone…

I created a convenience tool for this use-case.

Enter your phone number and the amount. Let others scan the dynamically generated QR code with their Swish app.

You can also link to payments for sharing. Phone numbers are encrypted in URL and there is no backend.

https://swisher.carlb.dev https://github.com/carlbarrdahl/swisher

Re: Swedes rebelling against a cashless society (2018)

#166
post #124

I'm Swedish and this stuff makes me really worried. Especially since the main way for two people to exchange small amounts of money is through a proprietary app that uses a proprietary ID system (owned by a for-profit company) that only runs on iOS, Android, Windows and Mac. I really hope this trend dies off, a cash-less society is a terrible idea. I will say, however, that buses not taking cash is perfectly fine. Th…

>I really hope this trend dies off, a cash-less society is a terrible idea.... Exactly. We could get rid of coins, and replace it with an electronic variant and leave paper cash alone. I am all for contactless payment, but I want the option to use cash. The only thing that guarantees privacy. And this is especially true in places without democracy, as shown in the Hong Kong Protest.

A few years ago I would have agreed with you, but spending time in Germany has changed my view on coins.

See, in the US, coins are kind of useless on their own. You can't pay for anything with only coins, so giving exact change is always an extra step on top of paying with cash. Ugh.

But in the EU, they have €1 and €2 coins, and it's difficult to overstate how much this changes the dynamic. It means that for purchases under ~€10, it's suddenly possible to pay with coins only. It also means that for cash purchases, you can often receive your change as, well, change. So for large purchases, I'll pay with cash only and receive change, which goes in my coin pouch, and for small purchases I'll give exact change in coins only, using them up.

This actually becomes less onerous than paying exclusively with bills, like I do in the US, because you use up your coins naturally instead of collecting them in a jar or something to be counted later.

It also helps that taxes are included in the price label, so a €5.99 purchase will yield €0.01 instead of something in the vicinity of $0.75.

Re: Swedes rebelling against a cashless society (2018)

#167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The tickets have no way of identifying you unless you register on their website. You could always just get rid of your card and get a new one when you want to.

They can't identify you, provided that they don't pair that data up with anything else. Eg just a few trips where you didn't turn your phone location off on the bus would be enough to know which card is yours. Even if you turn your location off every other time it wouldn't matter. Or your phone service provider can do that even with your location set to off. Don't the plastic cards cost extra?

If they can track your phone surely how you pay for the trip is neither here nor there.

Re: Swedes rebelling against a cashless society (2018)

#168
There is a world trend to criticise skandinavia (Scandinavian countries are always in the top 10 of best places to live) . The BBC has been for the last 10 years an awful source of it. The hit Scandinavia to divert attention of their own problems. EVVERYTHING they criticise is worst in the UK.

Re: Swedes rebelling against a cashless society (2018)

#169
post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Icelandic banks make 2FA mandatory, and your only 2FA choice is phone SMS. So now there is a ~1000kr/month fee for using the bank here, with a ~8000kr startup cost, because you need a phone and a sim card.

On the other hand basically no one pays for a phone landline anymore so I guess the cost is about equal to what it used to be? Though in Sweden the 2FA we tend to use is called BankId which is a standalone app only requiring an internet connection.

> only requiring an internet connection.

Oh, so how do you interface with your IP router for this?

Re: Swedes rebelling against a cashless society (2018)

#170
Excerpts from the 2022 Chairman of Harmony answer regarding the Holy See rejection of the Panda chip:

"It is a common misconception that the so called 'Mark of the Beast' chip has anything to do with money. The Panda chip is nothing more than a pandemic health and contact tracing beacon."

"Because the chip is always available and very secure, a lot of the citizens do choose to use it for payments."

"We find the ideas surrounding cash obsolete. All cash is uniquely identifiable and most major stores just destroy received cash for sanitary reasons and print cash on demand for change."

"Regarding precious metal purchases, the Government does allow purchase, except gold which is required to manufacture the Panda chip and related accessories".

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