This is why I think gnu taler is a great company and project

  • troxy@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Why just Mastercard. ALL payment services are doing this. Everything from payment gateways, card brands, digital wallets (You really think google and apple aren’t logging every detail of your purchases). Seems a bit silly to just call out Mastercard.

    • HughJanus@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      The government is selling your financial data, which is a whole other level of fucked up since thats not something you can opt out of, at all.

  • jsdz@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    More importantly, we should stop giving Mastercard our data. Paying for everything with credit cards has been an obviously bad idea since thirty years ago at latest.

    • Coasting0942@reddthat.com
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      1 year ago

      Regardless of it being a bad idea, it’s convenience completely overwhelmed any privacy considerations. As far as I can tell, we’re marching towards a cashless future with the last dam being politicians need for untraceable cash themselves. But those old politicians are being replaced by family dynasties who have replaced cash payments with favors for their son’s wife’s firm.

      Feudalism with extra steps, as ordained by our Heavenly Father Mr. monopoly man

  • kugmo@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    A wise man once said “cash is king”

    Although that brings up a point on how reliant we are on the banks, but a private crypto currency like monero is not yet ready for mass adoption.

    • chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      1 year ago

      I use it to pay for VPN and stuff, works pretty well IMO. There’s potential scaling issues if too many people use it, but you can get around those by using XMR to privately purchase a different cryptocurrency with higher throughput. Tornado Cash was pretty cool too before they made using it a felony.

        • chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          1 year ago

          I think you can get it with a credit card through the Cake Wallet app by buying a different crypto first and then swapping for XMR, this is probably the most user friendly way, though I can’t personally confirm. You can buy it directly on Kraken, though the account setup is some effort. Here is a curated list of reputable ways to acquire, trade and use crypto without KYC, if not providing personal info is a priority for you.

          I don’t think it’s actually that terrible for privacy to get it initially with KYC, because all they will know is that you purchased $X of crypto, so it’s comparable to withdrawing cash from a bank.

            • EngineerGaming@feddit.nl
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              1 year ago

              I’d avoid KYC for a different reason - I just can’t trust an exchange to keep such sensitive data safe. I thought of using Localmonero first (the usual recommendation), but then found a friend who can sell it to me for cash instead.

        • HughJanus@lemmy.ml
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          1 year ago

          No shortage of different ways but most of them require KYC which basically instantly makes it in useless. You can, however, buy from individuals using LocalMonero.

    • soulfirethewolf@lemdro.id
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      1 year ago

      Already, I see a lot of stigma around cryptocurrency. I don’t know if it’ll ever take off thanks to stuff like NFTs ruining it.

    • Possibly linux@lemmy.zipOP
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      1 year ago

      Monero will never be ready for mass adoption. The problem is that it is primary used for illegal transations. Its effectively tainted in my eyes

      • Jack@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        Is cash tainted for the same reason? I think when a currency is good for commiting crime, it is an indication that the currency is well designed.

          • Specal@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Seriously though why not? People pay for criminal transactions in USD, GBP, EUR. Do you not use these currencies?

            • Possibly linux@lemmy.zipOP
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              1 year ago

              No they don’t. At least not much anymore. Most of that stuff is in Monero.

              How do you think North Korea funds its nuclear program

              • Specal@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                Probably by not spending money on making sure it’s citizens are fed and healthy but what a silly way for thinking for me, the answer is obvious you’re right, they created a crypto currency and get the NYC mafia to pay for their nuclear program

      • liara@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        But you actually don’t know what monero is being used for when it’s used in transactions, no one does. You just have a bias that if people want to keep their transactions secret, it must be illegal.

        You could make the same argument for cash.

        • Pandemanium@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          It’s a little harder to lug around millions in cash without anyone noticing.

          Not all secret transactions are illegal, but the people who are doing illegal transactions will do anything they can to keep them secret.

        • HughJanus@lemmy.ml
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          1 year ago

          You could make the same argument for cash.

          Not really. At the time cash was created it was simply for exchanging value, because we didn’t have anything better. It’s just legacy currency now.

        • Possibly linux@lemmy.zipOP
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          1 year ago

          Most of the people using Monero are drug lords are foreign counties. You can get similar privacy with cash and it doesn’t have the same crime issue.

          I also mentioned taler because it provides privacy for the spender but not the receiver. The idea is that there will be less ways to effectively take dark money while protecting the rights of the consumer

      • shortwavesurfer@monero.town
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        1 year ago

        Anything that is private is going to be used for illegal transactions. That is not Monero’s fault. If you want it to be used for less illegal transactions, then use it for legal transactions yourself. I personally use it to pay for my life insurance, groceries, phone bill, etc. And as far as I’m aware, none of those are illegal transactions.

        • paraphrand@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I’m surprised at your list things you pay for with it. How does that work? Is there a gotcha and you are not actually using it but converting it to fiat at the time of purchase? For instance, what grocer accepts Monero?

          • shortwavesurfer@monero.town
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            1 year ago

            For now, it’s primarily through gift cards, or friends willing to send me fiat, and take Monero. However, I am one of those people who will actually pay more for something if I can pay for it directly in Monero. As an example of this, I get fresh coffee beans from gratuitas.org because they run their business in Monero. It is way more expensive than buying coffee from the store, but I am willing to do it just because they accept Monero only. My phone bill and groceries are paid via gift cards to Instacart and my phone carriers gift cards and life insurance is paid through Fiat with a friend who accepts Monero and sends me Fiat.

      • sik0fewl@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        It just seems like a scam to me. We buy things with credit cards to get the points and each transaction costs the merchant money. The merchant raises their prices to cover transaction fees, so now you’re not really getting points - you’re paying hidden fees that get some rewards points for (but not enough). The real scam is that it’s such a monopoly now (oligopoly?) that if you don’t pay with a credit card then you’re losing out - you’re paying inflated prices but not getting the reward points.

        Now, some people have to pay with credit cards, but that shouldn’t be the norm. If you’re perpetually one month (ie, one payment) behind on bills, etc, then credit card makes sense, but that should be an edge case - just need to save for a month and then you’re good. (yes, lots of shoulds and wishful thinking there, I know, read the next paragraph).

        If you fall more than a month behind on payments, the you’re paying some 20% interest, which is likely going to destroy you anyways. So living “a month behind”, while maybe the reality for many is likely to get way worse before it gets better.

        I will acknowledge that CC companies provide things like insurance and liability protection. I think that if governments and/or banks could provide this, there would be no good reason to use a credit card beyond the odd big purchase. And realistically, some international transactions, as well, since it will take a long time before all our payment systems are integrated to that degree.

  • burningmatches@feddit.uk
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    1 year ago

    Are they alleging that Mastercard sells data with personally identifiable information? Because if not, what’s the big deal? The people that buy this data want to know about trends.

    • southsamurai@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      Ask the woman and her daughter that got charged after anti abortion laws got passed and were dumb enough to use Facebook for communication.

      Even assuming that MasterCard is fully intending to keep everything secure (which is impossible to guarantee), you never know how it’s going to be used later on.

      I mean, ffs, it’s already known that multiple US agencies just buy data and use it for their purposes. It’s a damn sure bet that every damn country does something similar.

      De-anonymizing data is a thing. You get enough data points, and everything is right there.