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Digital Independence: Berlin wants to introduce European payment service Wero (www.heise.de)
submitted 9 months ago by to c/buyeuropean@feddit.uk
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Berliners will soon have to pay fees and other payments to the administration via the payment system Wero. This was decided by the digital committee of the House of Representatives, according to a report by Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (RBB).

Wero -- a combination of We and Euro -- is a digital payment service that allows money to be transferred by providing a mobile phone number or an email address. It is intended to be positioned against US payment services such as Paypal.

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[โ€“] 1 point 9 months ago (8 children)

Crypto doesn't have to be like that. I agree it isn't a controlled currency. That was by design, but it is why it swings so wildly. I'm unconvinced it will ever stabilize. A country/trade-block will want to have ways to control the value to stabilize it.

As for funny money, well, money is just units of value that people agree the value of. It's all just belief based. Even if it is gold backed, which I don't think any are now today. If Musk found a massive gold asteroid, the value of gold would drop as he brought it to Earth. Even if there isn't really a gold asteroid. Just mass believing there is, reduces the value of gold. Everything's value is from our believe of it's use, scarcity and what we think everyone else value for it is. It's all funny money really!

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  • [โ€“] 1 point 9 months ago* (7 children)

    To be fair, if Musk found a massive gold asteroid it'd have no effect on the economy cause that stupid greedy Nepo baby would keep it all to himself.

    You keep skirting around the key point of ENVIRONMENTAL DAMAGE, as if you don't have an answer and so are intentionally avoiding the question btw.

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  • [โ€“] 1 point 9 months ago (6 children)

    Well that also makes my point. If no one knows about the extra gold, it wouldn't effect the price of gold until it was noticed there was more of it. It is about the belief of scarcity, not the scarcity.

    I'm saying not all cryptos are as damaging. "Proof of stake" instead of "proof of work", is all about reducing the load. But part of the reason for any mining is so the system is setup to pay those running the block chain. You could just have banks all running it and no payment built in. In fact, if it is for a traditional currency, you don't want it creating money. It's just a representation of it, like paper money. For that matter coins are, the metal is worth less than the value (or the coins get melted).

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  • [โ€“] 1 point 9 months ago (5 children)

    Answer the question

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  • [โ€“] 1 point 9 months ago (4 children)

    I don't accept the premise that any crypto always wastes energy. Bitcoin is maybe the most energy hungry one but others use a lot less.

    Ethereum energy use dropped by 99.84% when they moved from proof of work to proof of stake.

    https://digiconomist.net/ethereum-energy-consumption

    A national digital currency might work different again.

    If this truely works, you could get rid of cash. All that metal and paper and distribution fades out. You could end up using less energy over all.

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  • [โ€“] 1 point 9 months ago (3 children)

    At that point, just don't use crypto for it then?

    We're already using digital currency in 75% of cases anyhow.

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  • [โ€“] 1 point 9 months ago (2 children)

    What I want is a system that is open source, secure and can do p2p. The natural way to do that is a cryptography based approach.

    The current national currency systems are closed and as much about gate keeping, control and taking a cut, as enabling payment.

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  • [โ€“] 1 point 9 months ago (1 child)

    What you want is a pipedream

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  • [โ€“] 1 point 9 months ago

    I'm not the only one who wants this. All exists in some form already. If it can't be open and secure, it is not secure at all. "security through obscurity is no security at all"

    I want to pay for something directly from my phone by transferring to an address. Far better you push a known amount from your trusted device. Right now, it's pull from your card! Basically, right now, every machine you put your card in you are relying on pulling the same number it displays! This only works at all because of the nightmare control of middlemen like WorldPay. They can get stuffed. Try making something that needs payment right now.

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