The "money" used to buy bread is a very practical medium to exchange resources. These figures with too many digits are not real: that "money" is a result of sums of products of virtual values based on credit and speculation. The fact that the same symbol ($) is used for these two very different things sounds like a systemic bug.
phil
joined 1 month ago
Looks more and more like a vulgar Ponzi scheme. Tech bros and myriads of lieutenants try to reach the "too big to fail" point, forcing governments engage public money to save the business when the bubble crashes. Brilliant.
Unless there's a proper assessment, ZKP looks a bit like a magic wand to a very complex problem. Provided that it's done right (how exactly?), it might turn to a superb fingerprint facilitating tracking and surveillance for every one. Eg. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/07/zero-knowledge-proofs-alone-are-not-digital-id-solution-protecting-user-privacy?language=en.
The "voluntary" aspect will be just like when Don Corleone makes "an offer that he can't refuse".
What changed in the German stand the earlier from "That's not acceptable, that won't happen under our watch"? I vaguely read somewhere (?) that there might have been a deal with the French about something completely different in exchange of support. Is there any information on that?
Sure, but it's all about 12 digit figures, not about making sense.
Those figures are just as virtual as the "success" of these fools. Sadly the damage done by this gigantic bubble is already very concrete, but its explosion might have terrible consequences for a lot of honest people.
A bit of patience, the burst of that bubble is coming... (https://www.forbes.com/sites/petercohan/2025/10/15/ai-bubble-may-pop---wiping-out-40-trillion-learn-what-could-happen-and-what-to-do/)
This article is so bad, take it with a pinch of salt. There's a very long history of bogus announcements around Aadhaar, governments (remember it was introduced by Congress in the name of anti-corruption) pushing it down the throat of people despite Supreme Court rulings that it cannot be compulsory.
But in India maybe more than in most places, so many people seem to believe this is a good thing to comply to such stupid use of the worst technologies, as long as the can showcase their shiny latest smartphones.
EU on fast track to absolute madness: "Risk mitigation" is so vague that virtually anything can be arbitrary enforced to anyone, reports and deliberations kept secret, yet the French reps mentioned being "hostages" of data protection laws.
By the way, the charter still mentions:
Article 7
Respect for private and family life
Everyone has the right to respect for his or her private and family life, home and communications.
Article 8
Protection of personal data
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Everyone has the right to the protection of personal data concerning him or her.
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Such data must be processed fairly for specified purposes and on the basis of the consent of the person concerned or some other legitimate basis laid down by law. Everyone has the right of access to data which has been collected concerning him or her, and the right to have it rectified.
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Compliance with these rules shall be subject to control by an independent authority.
Sure they can buy bread, but here's the catch: it's like going to the bakery, asking for free bread with the promise that you'll pay later because you can show 10 digit numbers, even if your pockets are actually empty. So these people practically live on credit because the market value would crash if they sell. At a macro level, 97 % of every dollar is actually debt (credit), mostly created by private banks to feed the system: https://econcurrents.com/2024/08/25/where-does-us-money-come-from-and-where-does-it-go/.