221–230 of 498 posts
WHAAAAATTTTT!!!!! “…thousands were queuing in Nairobi to have their eyeballs scanned as part of the “Worldcoin” project, founded by OpenAI chief Sam Altman. In exchange for handing over their biometric data, some 350,000 Kenyans each received 25 free crypto tokens, worth approximately $50. Those tokens were transferred directly via Kenya’s main mobile payments app, M-Pesa.” Actually that doesn’t sound so forward thin…
I believe once we go fully cashless, we'll regret it and wish we could go back. I can barely enjoy a full day without being required to bring my phone / debit card with me because the register does not accept cash.
>I can barely enjoy a full day without being required to bring my phone / debit card with me because the register does not accept cash. But how do you get a regular re-supply of your cash to pay the places that take cash? For me, I would have to make a regular trips to the bank ATM machine to withdraw cash. That type of errand is inconvenient which is why I haven't done that in 15 years. It's been so long that I don'…
I withdraw a sum of cash at the beginning of each month at the bank.
I carry maybe ~150 euros whenever I’m out doing stuff.
What’s interesting is I spend less this way - and preserve my privacy.
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Not in the US. There are no laws requiring businesses to do so. Why would employers spend the resources required for such a thing?
Some scenarios I hope you see as obvious: - you take out cash from an ATM. The machine is loaded with sequential or logged order of SN that can be matched to withdrawals and times. - you take that cash immediately to a vending machine or supermarket auto-checkout that takes notes. The machine scans all notes it ingests and can match them to timings and purchase details. - Even a small shop might have a camera at the…
I can tell you they don't do that, at least for the systems I know in Europe. And for manual systems obviously the cashier doesn't record serials and match them to transactions.
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> I can barely enjoy a full day without being required to bring my phone / debit card with me because the register does not accept cash. Buy somewhere else (if humanly possible), and tell this to the vendor who doesn't want to accept cash.
It's not vendors but governments that are pushing for this.
Not using cash means someone gets a cut of a processing fee. Every time, with almost no exceptions. I’m not down to have rent seeking companies taking a slice of my hard earned money just so I don’t have to manage a few pieces of paper. You’re generally paying 3-4 percent of every transaction now, as that’s pretty standard for debit cards on businesses, and it doesn’t matter if it’s charged to the card holder or the…
There were already costs. There were always costs and risks associated with cash handling: armored trucks doing cash collection, risks of money in tills being lost. If it really were a lot cheaper you wouldn’t see businesses clamouring to go cashless. That’s not to say I think cash should go the way of the dodo, but I don’t think there’s that much difference paying g4s to collect your money vs Mastercard. IMO the ben…
I will always recall the chaos of being in a northern Minnesota tourist town (Ely) when the single fiber-optic line serving the region was cut. I sure was glad our group brought cash. All the people with only third party companies willing to pay for them some time in the future had their trips and plans ruined. But that's sort of a trivial example. It could be much worse. And then there's the rent seeking inherent in…
>Plus cash is just so much more convient and faster. You mentioned "puritanism and censorship" as your main issue with cards (and I assume with other digital payment systems), but to the best of my knowledge that's only an issue with online payments, for which cash isn't really possible at all. Unless you feel that sending bills in an envelope to some postal address you see on a website to be fast and convenient.
The experience of using cash is very simple, fast, and reliable. In the future digital payment systems may become those things but unless you're in an urban area they currently are not. Your experience of using digital payment systems in person in, say, a coastal megalopolis differs significantly from using it to buy a shovel at a hardware store in a small town. At best (with credit or debit cards) it's almost as convient as cash, most of the time.
If I want to exchange value with another human person cash makes it easy and simple. It is far from easy with digital systems involving arbitrary third party corporate persons.
As for online stuff I mostly use bitcoin.
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Lets be honest, bitcoin is not usable for every day transactions.
OK, honest question, have you tried it recently? Have you used a modern lightning wallet?
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By your logic the currency goes up when the poor get poorer
Yes, if a million poor people lose $1 each, that has the same effect as one guy losing $1 million.
If people like Musk lose wealth because of sinking stock prices, his workers don't have suddenly more buying power.
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I believe (even in the US!) you can pay in a check by taking a photo in your bank app.
The money isn't instant though. People paying for such services with a cheque would do well living a few weeks in someone else's shoes.
Not using cash means someone gets a cut of a processing fee. Every time, with almost no exceptions. I’m not down to have rent seeking companies taking a slice of my hard earned money just so I don’t have to manage a few pieces of paper. You’re generally paying 3-4 percent of every transaction now, as that’s pretty standard for debit cards on businesses, and it doesn’t matter if it’s charged to the card holder or the…
And yet, when last did you get a 3-4% discount when paying cash? I remember that from the 90s and 00s. In fact, I have seen some small places ask a 3-4% surcharge for cash payments, because banks don't process cash for free any more.