And, as the professor in the article explains, it is a “disaster” for a small minority. And those are not he same minority who struggled for the same reasons before, and those difficulties ought be addressed. The system can be improved.
But it’s largely a success for the vast majority too. I don’t personally know of anyone with a negative impression of it. It’s actually something that the average Nordic Baltic person is so used to and happy with that it only comes to mind when we meet people from countries that aren’t organised - and we feel sorry for them!
It’s the same situation with cash. Very few people in a cashless society are wanting to go back to the old ways.
there is no average person, it is a myth of statistics.
But Norway is a monarchy well connected with the global Epstein class so I doubt their political system can actually reach an shareholder-hostile edge case. And meanwhile the surveillance helps keeping internal peace because one can reliably deplatform dissenters and conspiracy theorists.
It's a win-win until the n-th generation of nepo children is trying to steal too much and everybody notices they have been robbed.
I don’t think that’s true. Also, never “trust” a bank with your money, for starters, “your money” is nothing but a fake number that doesn’t actually reflect a physical monetary asset, hence why if enough amount of people withdraw their money, you end up with a bank run, aka, the bank digital fake numbers are more than the actual physical papers. Additionally, in many cases you don’t want to be in entirely cashless system, besides the privacy concerns, you might get locked out of your account because the network operator malfunctioned (like Rogers in Canada back in 2022 I think, all ATMs were useless, purchase points, etc.), or maybe a sun coronal mass ejection that fries some utility power plants, or drop in the frequency and you end up like Spain last year or the year before.
The more you rely on one centralized point, the worse, hence why engineers avoid single point of failure in any design, be smart, and diversify your options.
The article is light on details. Are people being denied BankID due to having an autism diagnosis?
There are some crazy details in this story that are presented as side notes in between long paragraphs of filler text that don’t contribute anything. It’s an article where you keep reading expecting some explanations that never arrive.
MinID is only considered "secure" while BankID is considered "highly secure"; as the linked pdf report (on Norwegian) states - in Norway, due to the popularity/market dominance of BankID - a lot of the logins are "highly secure" - while in Sweden their (different, but with same name) BankID is only "secure" - and most services require only "secure" login.
In Norway there are AFAIK public services that require "highly secure" login - and there the public issued MinID isn't enough.
If 2fa for MinID is improved - I think it would easily be upgraded to "highly secure" (most other details are similar to BankID). That should take care of public services.
Private services that do not cater to the public good - would still need a portal similar to (or be granted use of) Idporten.
So I think catastrophe is a little hyperbolic - but the current path of BankID dominance isn't good.
Ed: I see the hn title is editorialized - TFA has a more balanced title.
Ed2: From the podcast - BankID might get downgraded to "secure" because of how 2fa is handled - so it's not only MinID that might need some adjustments.
There are even tools are being sold to do that, an israeli company called logivote made a tool to scan the social media and check who bad mouthed the politicians. So expect in the near future, you bad mouth one, you get sent to jail the next day, or debanked.
tamimio•2h ago
lifestyleguru•1h ago
Daunk•1h ago
tamimio•1h ago
> Norway, Sweden, and Israel partner to test CBDCs (https://reclaimthenet.org/norway-sweden-and-israel-partner-t...)
Debanking someone is basically ending their lives in modern days, when your ID is linked to the banks, an ID that’s also to be used for digital services, you could get debanked for criticizing a politician in the future, for example.
And uncle freedom sure will get that data from their “closest ally”, not to mention any breaches like what happened in Sweden recently, a country that also wants to strap tracking on 13yo.
Digital ID is a nightmare anywhere’s used, it will turn any government into a totalitarian state.
Daunk•1h ago
philipallstar•1h ago
rokkamokka•1h ago
M95D•56m ago
tyfon•1h ago
Being able to sign contracts, engage with the healthcare system, file taxes, read messages from the government and do general banking without having to leave the home is a massive convenience boost.
We are a high trust society where the government or the banks are not out to "get you". The majority of the banks (not by volume but by numbers) are even in a structure without any ownership of the capital except for the depositors, and most of the profit from these banks that is not used to build the capital further is handed out to customers and/or the local community.
thyristan•39m ago
That's not the meaning of a "high trust society".
You are _trusting_ that the banks and the government are not out to get you. That doesn't mean that they _really_ aren't out to get you. You just believe they aren't and haven't yet been disappointed enough to change your belief...
Edit: and the original article shows btw. that there is yet another failure mode, not only "out to get you". It's that the banks and the government obviously don't care a bit if some people are intentionally left behind.
hobofan•40m ago
Last year the government launched an goverment owned alternative "myGov" and now has to claw back market share, which I don't see working out.