7 ms·

Visa Goes Down in the UK, Chaos Ensues, Cash Is Suddenly King

steveharman 8y ago
Maybe it's time someone invented a decentralised "currency" for cashless payments?
- jjeaff 8y ago
  Imagine the chaos if Bitcoin had been the main payment system for the last few years. Huge fluctuations, multi-hour processing times, $30 transaction fees for a $1 pack of gum. I could go on.
  - cosmojg 8y ago
    Well, yeah. Bitcoin has been deprecated by several other cryptocurrencies at this point. It's proven itself unviable for long-term use as real currency.
  - bwbw223 8y ago
    That's mostly a Bitcoin-only issue, luckily.
- lithos 8y ago
  Maybe one that doesn't even need electrical power.
  - cosmojg 8y ago
    How would such a world work? What is your vision?
    - lithos 8y ago
      We should get a bunch of people together, and just agree that specifically printed paper has a represented value.
- ultim8k 8y ago
  Maybe it's time for money itself to end. In an ideal society, robots would produce the wealth and humans would only work on science, sports and culture. Imagine a world that sports would be clean of drugs, science would only be used for good and not for profit, and arts would be only an expression of someone's "soul". (the abstract meaning of soul, not the religious one)
  - cosmojg 8y ago
    Out of curiosity, why did you separate sports from culture? Sports, like music or videogames, are a part of culture. And why are drug-free sports necessarily a desirable outcome? Surely sports played by athletes truly pushing themselves to their limits using all available means would be more interesting than the comparatively tame sports of today. And why limit the expression of art to the abstract human soul, whatever that is? A science-excited world without need for money would certainly be excellent. However, a world with a restricted approach to sports, arts, and other culture would just be boring.
    - ultim8k 8y ago
      >Out of curiosity, why did you separate sports from culture? Sports, like music or videogames, are a part of culture. Just a naive categorisation from my side. >And why are drug-free sports necessarily a desirable outcome? I would just prefer to see people that do things with passion and love instead of profit (Profit as per money). >And why limit the expression of art to the abstract human soul, whatever that is? I don't mean to limit the expression. What I mean here is again to do things with love and passion and not for money. >However, a world with a restricted approach to sports, arts, and other culture would just be boring. No restrictions at all. I just dream a world where people will do things they love and not things they have to do in order to make more money.
kpil 8y ago
Wouldn't hard for the politicians to mandate a temporary emergency credit for chip cards and readers, to be used when the network is down. The banks and Visa could share the credit risks, to give them some incentive to make services that works.
- mmt 8y ago
  Be careful of unintended consequences, though. It could create a perverse incentive for fraudsters to take down the system in a way that's outside the control of the banks and Visa, which could mean outages of many more services.
- magicalhippo 8y ago
  Here in Norway our debit cards (BankAxept) still work without communication. The customer has to sign a copy of the receipt which is then sent to the bank by the store (with next cash drop/pickup). It's a bit of a chore when the whole system goes down, but at least you can still get your groceries and whatnot.
ultim8k 8y ago
Mastercard worked fine though.

Maybe it's time someone invented a decentralised "currency" for cashless payments?

jjeaff 8y ago
Imagine the chaos if Bitcoin had been the main payment system for the last few years. Huge fluctuations, multi-hour processing times, $30 transaction fees for a $1 pack of gum. I could go on.
- cosmojg 8y ago
  Well, yeah. Bitcoin has been deprecated by several other cryptocurrencies at this point. It's proven itself unviable for long-term use as real currency.
- bwbw223 8y ago
  That's mostly a Bitcoin-only issue, luckily.
lithos 8y ago
Maybe one that doesn't even need electrical power.
- cosmojg 8y ago
  How would such a world work? What is your vision?
  - lithos 8y ago
    We should get a bunch of people together, and just agree that specifically printed paper has a represented value.
ultim8k 8y ago
Maybe it's time for money itself to end. In an ideal society, robots would produce the wealth and humans would only work on science, sports and culture. Imagine a world that sports would be clean of drugs, science would only be used for good and not for profit, and arts would be only an expression of someone's "soul". (the abstract meaning of soul, not the religious one)
- cosmojg 8y ago
  Out of curiosity, why did you separate sports from culture? Sports, like music or videogames, are a part of culture. And why are drug-free sports necessarily a desirable outcome? Surely sports played by athletes truly pushing themselves to their limits using all available means would be more interesting than the comparatively tame sports of today. And why limit the expression of art to the abstract human soul, whatever that is? A science-excited world without need for money would certainly be excellent. However, a world with a restricted approach to sports, arts, and other culture would just be boring.
  - ultim8k 8y ago
    >Out of curiosity, why did you separate sports from culture? Sports, like music or videogames, are a part of culture. Just a naive categorisation from my side. >And why are drug-free sports necessarily a desirable outcome? I would just prefer to see people that do things with passion and love instead of profit (Profit as per money). >And why limit the expression of art to the abstract human soul, whatever that is? I don't mean to limit the expression. What I mean here is again to do things with love and passion and not for money. >However, a world with a restricted approach to sports, arts, and other culture would just be boring. No restrictions at all. I just dream a world where people will do things they love and not things they have to do in order to make more money.

kpil 8y ago

Wouldn't hard for the politicians to mandate a temporary emergency credit for chip cards and readers, to be used when the network is down. The banks and Visa could share the credit risks, to give them some incentive to make services that works.

mmt 8y ago
Be careful of unintended consequences, though. It could create a perverse incentive for fraudsters to take down the system in a way that's outside the control of the banks and Visa, which could mean outages of many more services.
magicalhippo 8y ago
Here in Norway our debit cards (BankAxept) still work without communication. The customer has to sign a copy of the receipt which is then sent to the bank by the store (with next cash drop/pickup). It's a bit of a chore when the whole system goes down, but at least you can still get your groceries and whatnot.

ultim8k 8y ago

Mastercard worked fine though.