Albania can learn from Southeast Asian countries like us. Rather than choosing between paying by card vs cash, we also have QR payment option as well…. coz… everyone here uses smartphone these days, and not all have Visa/Mastercard, so might as well leverage on that to provide another payment option, which everyone can benefit from it.
I don’t get why “QR” is described as a “payment option”. It’s still a bank account transaction in the end which is exclusively for banked people. And worse, it excludes people without recent smartphones and the Google Playstore account needed to get the closed-source app that violates our software freedom.
I have a hard time giving a shit about the novelty of not carrying a plastic card in the big scheme of things, when forced-banking is being oppressively shoved in our faces and privacy is toast, while also being vulnerable to systemic denial of service in the event of cyberattacks as acts of war. While violating our human rights (banks treat different people differently based on where they come from).
IDK about you, but QR payments here aren’t just for those who have bank accounts. Majority of non-bank eWallet apps also have integrated with this QR system, and they have their own account numbers and QR that works like a bank account, and anyone can register it entirely through the apps. Even lower-spec and older smartphones can still run those bank/eWallet apps here just fine, as long those smartphones are not rooted.
Sounds like Paypal, who is “not a bank”, but who operates on the basis that you must link a bank or interact with a bank to do transactions. But you say unbanked people can use it? How do you get cash loaded onto it?
I suppose it’s still far from being something I could find useable because apps that reject rooted phones would be closed-source (read: untrustworthy; misplaced control).
Sounds like Paypal, who is “not a bank”, but who operates on the basis that you must link a bank or interact with a bank to do transactions.
You mentioned you “must” link a bank or interact with a bank. Not in this case.
But you say unbanked people can use it?
Yep, I said that.
How do you get cash loaded onto it?
They can go to any 7-Eleven stores to reload their cash into the app. Some other convenience stores offer such service too.
“European countries best prepared for a cashless future.”
Germany: 0 Points. 🤡
It is the Germans’ luck that they do not have adequate infrastructure. A cashless future is a dystopia.
And what about privacy? Do people still have a right for anonymous payments, or if one needs to buy, for example, big dildo in a sex shop, both bank’s manager and the government should know about it? And besides jokes, do they really want to build a system with a full control of financial operations of citizens? Sounds like a step to the neo-GULAG for me (GULAG is a name of the system of opression camps that exiated in the former USSR). Especially in Albania, that is still quite far away from the top of democracy and freedom ratings.
Don’t worry, all your cash transactions are traced as well. Banks just record the serial numbers when you use the ATM and once again when the store returns the cash to the bank. Source(de)
Wow, wtf! I would not expect that degree of mass surveillance to be economically viable. And so overtly stark in the face of the GDPR. In principle, we should be able to make a GDPR access request to the central bank to ask them where we shop with cash and which ATMs we used.
Europeans are fucked as far as privacy goes. The GDPR is unenforced. But even if were enforced, the GDPR’s data minimisation (article 5) rule only obligates data controllers to consider options that are available.
We know from all the cashless bars in Amsterdam how naive and flippant consumers are about privacy. Creating a digital footprint of alcohol consumption is one of the most foolish things consumers can do, particularly in light of that Scandinavian guy who was denied a mortgage on the basis of his drinking habits, which were known to the bank by his purchase history.
Privacy aside, there is a human rights issue because banks treat different demographics of people differently. It’s disturbing how the human rights problem is so overlooked.
In any case, Albania cannot join the EU while being cashless unless Albania keeps their own currency.
Stupid idea.
To control the flow of money?
To control the flow of money.
