Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Sweden's cashless society is no longer a utopia

weforum.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

501–510 of 628 posts

Re: Sweden's cashless society is no longer a utopia

#501

Post by Hextinium »

kadendogthing wrote: post #473
gsich wrote: post #414

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can already see that manufacturers have a hard time to come up with new features. Stuff like thinner devices (nobody cares or wants this to a certain degree, compared to a better battery life), 3+ cameras, notches because for some reason you can't integrate speakers behind the display. "AI" stuff that doesn't work when you're offline. I would trade all this shit for a week battery time. So yes, while smartphones…

>nobody cares or wants this to a certain degree, compared to a better battery life Then why do consumers constantly praise thinner phones, and continue to purchase them? I think you're mistaking what you want and consider a good choice compared to what everyone else actually wants and is willing to support.

The purchasing of the new best thing can also be the case, take for example that there hasn't been a flagship phone that actually fits in most peoples single hand since the SE and yet I know lots of people that will just "buy the next Iphone" because thats what they have done for 5 years with no consideration for ergonomics.

Re: Sweden's cashless society is no longer a utopia

#502

Post by gsich »

kadendogthing wrote: post #473
gsich wrote: post #414

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can already see that manufacturers have a hard time to come up with new features. Stuff like thinner devices (nobody cares or wants this to a certain degree, compared to a better battery life), 3+ cameras, notches because for some reason you can't integrate speakers behind the display. "AI" stuff that doesn't work when you're offline. I would trade all this shit for a week battery time. So yes, while smartphones…

>nobody cares or wants this to a certain degree, compared to a better battery life Then why do consumers constantly praise thinner phones, and continue to purchase them? I think you're mistaking what you want and consider a good choice compared to what everyone else actually wants and is willing to support.

Because there is no alternative. It's not legit to say "people like thin smartphones more" when you are only making thin ones. Same for the headphone jack.

Re: Sweden's cashless society is no longer a utopia

#503

Post by Lio »

felipemnoa wrote: post #243
dmitriy_ko wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That reminds me of Futurama episode where Bender finds a phone booth: "Now I don't need to carry my phone with me all the time!" Progress is sometimes a regress in disguise.

I've noticed this with mature technology. There comes a point where a product is perfect, no need to add anymore features. But the manufacturer still wants to continue adding new features so that they can use those as new selling points. Unfortunately the new features end up making the product worse.

You mean like an electric toothbrush with Bluetooth?

I’d love to have been in the design meeting where thry decided that was more important than world voltage compatibility.

“World voltage are you mad? Who packs a toothbrush when they go travelling? Nope, what the people are clamering for is bluetooth support!”

Re: Sweden's cashless society is no longer a utopia

#505

Post by jordanbeiber »

fiblye wrote: post #380
CPLX wrote: post #14

A society without cash is a society in which every person has no choice but to get the permission of someone they don’t know and will never meet each and every time they seek to obtain food, water, shelter, or transportation, and that permission can be revoked instantly, silently, and invisibly at any time.

Furthermore, a society that relies on digital payments is a society that would collapse with a week long blackout. A couple targeted power plant attacks would be enough to completely destroy the economy. That's terrifying.

So, basically you are saying war would destroy the economy.

I agree.

Cash or no cash.

Re: Sweden's cashless society is no longer a utopia

#506

Post by [deleted] »

tjoff wrote: post #28
zzzcpan wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Untraceable anonymous transactions is the minimal requirement for it not to be harmful and dystopian.

I agree, but unfortunately I don't believe a society being run by humans would ever implement that. The leaders will not tolerate that kind of loss of control.

[deleted]

Re: Sweden's cashless society is no longer a utopia

#507

Post by aembleton »

zmk_ wrote: post #449
Symbiote wrote: post #396

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just today I went to a concert in Malmø where the bar is cash only. This is a medium sized place. You can withdraw cash by credit card at the ticket desk, to take to the bar and pay for drinks. It's annoying for people like me, occasional visitors from Denmark. I don't know why they don't have the chip and pin terminal at the bar.

They would have to pay commission on every transaction to whoever owns the terminal and the network.

You have to pay someone to take away the cash and its often slower than tapping your card on a reader.

Re: Sweden's cashless society is no longer a utopia

#508

Post by [deleted] »

xrd wrote: post #339
TheSpiceIsLife wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is that more convenient than a bank transfer? Now the other party needs to sign up to a bitcoin exchange.

I'd say absolutely. I don't know of a bank where I can set up an account completely online through an app, which you can do with cex.io or coinbase. It's gotten harder but generally you create an account and then upload your ID and then can buy very soon afterwards. That makes it tenable in my opinion to ask even the most Luddite of friends to do it before the event and then pay people back that way.

[deleted]

Re: Sweden's cashless society is no longer a utopia

#509

Post by megapatch »

zmk_ wrote: post #449
Symbiote wrote: post #396

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just today I went to a concert in Malmø where the bar is cash only. This is a medium sized place. You can withdraw cash by credit card at the ticket desk, to take to the bar and pay for drinks. It's annoying for people like me, occasional visitors from Denmark. I don't know why they don't have the chip and pin terminal at the bar.

They would have to pay commission on every transaction to whoever owns the terminal and the network.

Actually they pay about the same commission for cash (yes!) when they take it to the bank.

Re: Sweden's cashless society is no longer a utopia

#510

Post by pmontra »

lapinot wrote: post #468
coldtea wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lots of oppressive regimes and policies throughout 20th century had large popular support too, and people opted-in to them.

Exactly, this is not stated enough. We have to grow up with our relationship with political systems, authoritarianism even dictatorship: it happens because of some population dynamics which we may or may not be currently be participating in or regularly encounter. So sure, the question of why cashless has taken off there is interesting, but maybe more importantly we need to think about the current state, what could b…

Every country in your system would have to use their own currency again because if banknotes are the same and (example) the German Euro is stronger than the French one (that would mean everything on Germany is cheaper than in France), the French would hoard all the Euro banknotes they can get their hands on and buy stuff in Germany. Traveling to Germany is not for everybody but there would be companies doing mass transfers of money and goods for the rest of the population. By the way, this is why the Eurozone authorities try to make every country align on debt, growth, etc, which is pretty hopeless given so many governments with different pools of voters and agendas. Like having the USA with a powerless president (who knows who's the EU president), camera and senate and governors trying to agree on everything with basically no cross country political party.

It also looks a little like those countries with their own national currency but also everyone accepting USD. Tourists can carry dollars, lose a little by unfavorable rates at every payment, maybe end up with change in the local currency to use in the next shop. I remember that on vacation in Uzbekistan.

Post reply on HN