• thehatfox@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    Cash isn’t much use for making purchases online, which is also where an ever increasing amount of spending is done.

    There’s no coin or note slot on my laptop, and contrary to the internet’s advice throwing money at my screen doesn’t seem to work either.

    I used to be a big proponent of cash but with the bulk of my financial activity happening online now I can’t help it feeling a bit redundant.

    • SeekPie@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      Mullvad lets you mail them cash, but I don’t think it’s scalable nor fast enough to be widely used.

    • Ready! Player 31@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      Retaining some ability to spend and use cash is vital because otherwise, all our financial transactions are totally controlled by the banks, and they are completely untrustworthy. The cost is inconvenience.

    • TWeaK@lemm.ee
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      7 months ago

      Yes that’s fair enough, cash doesn’t work online - but bitcoin is a better solution for online transactions than cards.

      I mean, we haven’t even got into the subject of data tracking. If you think Facebook is bad, consider for a moment how much your card provider knows about you. Banks and card companies have learned from Facebook, and data brokerage is now a trillion dollar industry - with only 8 billion people in the world (many of whom don’t use the internet or have data being traded), that means your data is worth roughly $1,000 a year. Surely, as the manufacturer of the data, you should be getting some of that?!

      • WldFyre@lemm.ee
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        7 months ago

        Lol Bitcoin is not better than cards for online shopping, the only thing it’s better for is buying whatever you’re smoking.

        • TWeaK@lemm.ee
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          7 months ago

          Objectively, bitcoin is better for online transactions. It’s not even all that safe for buying drugs - every transaction is recorded permanently in an open ledger, so it’s actually much easier to trace (at least up to the end points where traditional currency is exchanged).

          It might be less widely accepted, but that’s only because of how insidiously endemic MasterCard and VISA are.

          • Croquette@sh.itjust.works
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            7 months ago

            How is bitcoin objectively better? That’s a pretty bold statement that needs some backing arguments.

            They both have pros and cons, but until BTC have garanteed near instanteneous transaction confirmation, I don’t see how that would work at the grocery store for example.

            • TWeaK@lemm.ee
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              7 months ago

              Bitcoin is objectively better based on the way it works. Subjectively, with the established infrastructure behind it, traditional card payments are artificially better - purely because of convenience. But on a level playing field bitcoin works better and is less susceptible to negative influences.

              The grocery store is not typically an online transaction. I did specify online transactions. For buying groceries online, bitcoin would be better - there are no fees when trading bitcoin. When trading cash, there are no fees.

              When putting cash into a business account, there are fees, and as almost all businesses put their money into an account they pay these fees. These cash deposit fees and card processing fees have grown in such a way as to entrap nearly all commercial transactions.

              Objectively, it’s better if there aren’t fees, particularly when the fees are not proportional to the actual service the fees are supposed to represent.