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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: September 25th, 2023

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  • Yes, this helps, thanks.

    I already understood the need to avoid private money agents like Paypal, visa, etc. In the UK we have the BACS and FPS systems that allow for direct free money transfer. Though they should be more usable for day to day transactions, they work well enough if you need to send a significant amount of money between bank accounts.

    Your explanation of the anonymity seems like the real value add of these digital currencies. The fact this only applies to the buyer and not the seller is a good choice, and definitely wins over blockchain crypto. Looking at it more closely, the fact they use signed tokens rather than proof-of-x is also a very good choice.

    I will need to read up on Taler’s docs more closely. But looking at the summary of features on their site something hits me as an immediate problem - you need to “load up” a wallet. If Jane Doe wants to buy a coffee, it’s far easier to just use a bank card (which may interface through a private money agent like visa, or a middleman like google/apple). Loading up private wallets isn’t a difficult concept (it’s how gift cards work), but it does add extra steps of friction that I think will need to be removed before this can really be taken up by the general public.

    It may harm the anonymity aspect, but I think that to get people using it a system that could operate like a tap-once-and-done bank card payment, loading up a wallet for immediate spend seems like the best solution. It would also help alleviate any fears that typically are associated with blockchain based digital currency - primarily of losing the signed digital money as it sits in a wallet out with the bank account’s protections. And once the system is normalised and people are used to it, then all the architecture is there for anyone that really needs the anonymity.










  • The biggest challenge with an “owned wealth” tax is how do you actually measure it? It’s easy if it’s held in cash in a bank, but most billionaire’s wealth is is land, property, and how do you measure the value of a Picasso stored in a vault if they can slip the valuator a grand to say it’s worthless?

    Closing offshore money transfer loopholes, heightened tax on luxury spending (100% VAT on private jets and yachts?), making fines income-based, and treating capital gains the same way as income, are all more achievable.

    I’m totally on board with the sentiment though.


  • I’m not sure if this counts as gameplay mechanics or rather narrative structure, but games like Outer Wilds, Fez, Tunic, where the exploration and discovery of the game is the end goal of playing the game, not just getting to the game’s end state.

    I’m not sure if there’s an accepted term for these games, but I’ve always thought of them as “archaeology” games. There’s a bunch of stuff, both plot and gameplay, that is hidden (sometimes in plain sight), until you discover it and find out what meaning it carries.


  • It’s honestly not amazing. It’s a third person shooter across multiple different levels of built up environments, offices, corridors. The enemy AI is pretty terrible, and although there are different tactics you can use to “hack” and take over enemies or melee, it’s usually just easier to shoot.

    But the parkour style navigation stood out. You can do wall jumping, which I was not expecting, and there are hidden pickups you can explore and find. And the open environments are nice (the corridors can feel a bit samey after a few levels).

    It feels like one of those tie-ins that, had the dev team had more time to explore, balance, and really make it into its own game, might have been really good.





  • SpaceScotsman@startrek.websitetoComic Strips@lemmy.worldKrampus
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    5 months ago

    If you are going to make me put a coin into a cart because you don’t trust me to be an adult and tidy up after myself without being nannied, then I am going to do my damndest to bypass your lock and leave a mess out of spite.

    In the shops where I am trusted and not required to pay a coin (I never even carry cash these days) I tidy up because that is the decent thing to do.