Privacy

48390 readers

246 users here now

A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.

Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.

In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.

Some Rules

Posting a link to a website containing tracking isn't great, if contents of the website are behind a paywall maybe copy them into the post
Don't promote proprietary software
Try to keep things on topic
If you have a question, please try searching for previous discussions, maybe it has already been answered
Reposts are fine, but should have at least a couple of weeks in between so that the post can reach a new audience
Be nice :)

Related communities

much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)

founded 6 years ago

MODERATORS

264

Should cash stay alive to enable "private" transactions? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) by War5oldier@lemmy.world to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

161 comments fedilink hide all child comments

For example: in Canada, the bank accounts of those who protested were literally frozen (for simply speaking out or being critical) and talks of potential CBDCs (aka. used to deduct funds from one's account as a fine) whilst considering on abolishing cash altogether.

The alternative (for now at least) may be Crypto (online) until they consider that "illegal" in the future penalizing those who are using it, framing that as money laundering or tax evasion, whilst pushing their propaganda of "tap & go is safe & convenient".

The answers are divided between:

"Cash is King" (it allows anonymous or "private" transactions between you and the merchant)
"Contactless" (convenient, but your purchases & transactions are monitored by the state)

Cash is apparently the last bastion of "anonymous" transactions where it doesn't appear on one's statement and one gets to keep their money without the state deducting it from their account since a nation's central bank has monopoly over CBDCs and one's funds.

That's not even the end of it: them trying to make BTC or equivalent illegal by making CBDCs the default replacing gold overnight, it would mean all those bills you have are worthless. At this point, the only payment method is CBDCs that are linked to one's digital ID.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] eldavi@lemmy.ml 0 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

the entire money system of fallout boy doesn't make sense; surely making the bottle costs more than the caps alone.

[–] lightnsfw@reddthat.com 5 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Caps in fallout are backed by water. It's not about how much it costs to make them. It's like how the dollar used to be backed by gold.

[–] eldavi@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

wasn't nixon also a president in the fallout universe? would he too not divest from the gold standard in universe?

[–] deathmetaldawgy@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

I’m not crazy brushed up on my fallout lore but I know that the general timeline is the exact same as the real world but the fallout universe splits when (in real life) the microchip was invented, instead of that (in the fallout universe) they focused on atomic nuclear energy instead of making computers smaller. I think it’s generally the same even after as far as presidents go, there are mentions of Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, etc. but it might be similar to the Elvis case in universe where there’s not much information left on these people so it’s hard to learn about and the average person in the wasteland probably barley understands what a president is

[–] eldavi@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 weeks ago

... he average person in the wasteland probably barley understands what a president is

it tickles me pink that the kind of general ignorance that bethesda baked into the 22nd century fallout world is already manifest in the 21st century real world. lol

[–] lightnsfw@reddthat.com 1 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

I'm not saying the dollar was/wasn't backed by gold in fallout. That was the case in real life up until they separated them at some point. I'm just saying that's how caps work in the fallout universe. Their value is based on a specific amount of water you can trade them for.

[–] eldavi@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

that seems to imply that there's sources of water under centralized control/record to that can speak authoritatively to price of water per bottle cap.

does that exist in game universe?

[–] lightnsfw@reddthat.com 2 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Here's some links if you want to read up on it.

https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Bottle_cap

The Hub merchants selected bottle caps because of two factors: First, the technology to manufacture them and paint their surfaces had been mostly lost in the Great War, which limited any counterfeiting efforts: The paint used, machining, and metal type all have to be very specific in order for a bottle cap to be genuine.[8] Second, there is a limited number of bottle caps, which preserves their value against inflation to some degree.[9] Finally, the Hub merchants in New California could support it as a common unit of exchange by backing it with water.[10]

https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/The_Hub#Guarantor_of_bottle_cap_currency

https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Water_Merchants

[–] explodicle@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

With who?

[–] lightnsfw@reddthat.com 2 points 2 weeks ago

One of the towns in the earlier games. I only played the ones after 3 so I don't know for sure if it was part of the game mechanics but it's in the lore.

[–] merc@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Fallout boy?

[–] eldavi@lemmy.ml 4 points 2 weeks ago

another senior moment. lol