651–660 of 802 posts
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A mechanic we used before moving had a strict no checks policy. He had a bad check for the repair of a church bus, from a church, framed in a fancy gold-painted frame, with "IN GOD WE TRUST, ALL OTHERS PAY CASH" below it.
But that's because you still use checks over there :)
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I'm not a european but I do have an example. A few years back I purchased a project car in cash. I don't carry checks, who does anymore? And my bank would have given me grief trying to transfer an amount that large at once. I had tried before and it would trigger their fraud detection and give me headaches. Its good its there but can be a barrier when I'm just trying to buy something. So going to branch and withdrawi…
I'm in Denmark, and the last car I bought was from a private seller on a Sunday, we met at a coffee shop and settled the (large, cars are expensive here) payment via an instant bank transfer that I initiated from my laptop. The money immediately showed in the seller's account and we transferred the title/registration via a government online service (which is free of charge). Easy as that, no need for checks or cash.
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I am European too and while we have better payment systems than in the US it's far from perfect. If you're referring to a SEPA transfer it is at least an order of magnitude more friction than handing over cash to someone.
In NL the iDeal system and Tikkie have -according to me- less friction than cash, and surely not for any large amount if you are on the receiving side (no need to have any change, money won’t be fake, you won’t have to deposit it, you can request a specific amount or let it open for the other person). Here’s some info: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/IDEAL https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micropayment#Tikkie They’re u…
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Ah well if you live in a country where the war on cash has advanced that much it's not surprising you see little cash usage.
Otherwise known as "Your society has actually advanced the payments and banking industries beyond the 60s that the US is perpetually stuck in" People don't use cash because there are better options that better meet their needs. Most people's needs don't include "the government can't know I'm buying this"
Is there really no monetary exchange you've made in your life that, if your government knew about, could get you into trouble? And are you so confident in the future of your government that you're willing to give them that power? I'm not.
This is good for Bitcoin.
In another part of this thread, somebody quoted a section where it listed cash, crypto, gold, platinum, and precious stones as all being part of the legislation.
Mind you, I said legal. Because black markets have always existed to fill the niche prohibited by the government. These days the black market also lets you bypass KYC laws for crypto.
Legislators up in their ivory tower have always held the misguided belief that laws can direct human behaviour. If one wants to make a "cash" (i.e. untraceable) transaction over €3000, it's not laws that are gonna stop them.
The viability of Bitcoin is correlated by how tight they pull the noose around cash. As an obnoxious crypto-anarchist, I welcome these laws, this is how the state will destroy its own currency in favour of the one that doesn't respect borders, limits and embargoes.
People will always favour the currency with the least amount of hoops to jump through.
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So you are saying that in order to purchase these items you must have a bank account?
Europe is not America, and they generally provide better services to their poor people. Someone else above pointed out a certain country has onramps into banking explicitly for homeless people.
Won't this just encourage large transactions to go back to barter of other valuable items? Eg. "I will swap you this $50k car for this $50k bag of diamonds"
I doubt it as the value of cash isn't only the value, but also in liquidity and granularity. Regardless of whether you have a $50k car or diamond, if you want to buy some groceries you're gonna need to liquidate because no one is gonna have a diamond worth $50k - $25 handy.
And one 1k diamond can probably be exchanged for 50 packs of cigarettes...
And one $20 pack of cigarettes can be split into 20 $1 cigarettes...
Sure - it isn't quite as easy as cash, but it doesn't seem far off...
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In NL the iDeal system and Tikkie have -according to me- less friction than cash, and surely not for any large amount if you are on the receiving side (no need to have any change, money won’t be fake, you won’t have to deposit it, you can request a specific amount or let it open for the other person). Here’s some info: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/IDEAL https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micropayment#Tikkie They’re u…
I did not know about these systems, thanks for enlightening me. Now I am a bit jealous my own country (France) does not have anything like this (as far as I know).
I added in my original post links to wikipedia, if you want more details. The section “criticism” is quite funny: it works like cash money (no guarantees from the bank if you get scammed, it’s not a credit card), and there might be some downtime at some point (1 day/year in total).
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When I got a RealID-compliant driver's license a few years ago in my state in the US, an existing driver's license and passport were not sufficient. I needed some document to server as proof of my current address, such as a utility bill. I don't remember what all the options were but, yes, some people--including kids getting their first driver's license or people sharing an apartment who don't have their name on a le…
In the Netherlands, the government already keeps track of everyone’s address. If you move, you have to register your new address with the municipality within a certain time frame. (IIRC 2 weeks)
In some cases, you can get basically locked out of all essential services, including bank account closures, not being able to make payments (especially now with these laws), etc.
Real fun!