Managing money has always been a hassle, but with technology, itâs becoming easier and more fun than ever before! With mobile banking apps, you can now check your account balance, pay bills, and even deposit checks from the comfort of your couch (while binge-watching your favourite TV show, of course). And if youâre the kind of person who loves to stay on top of their finances, there are tons of personal finance apps available that will help you track your spending, create budgets, and so much more. Who needs a financial advisor when you have a robot that can do it all for you? Technology is definitely changing the game when it comes to managing money, and weâre here for it!
While the rise of technology has undoubtedly brought many benefits, it has also raised concerns around issues such as data privacy, cybersecurity, and the potential impact of automation on employment. As we continue to push the boundaries of what is possible with technology, it is important to consider both the opportunities and challenges that come with it, and to ensure that we are using technology in a responsible and sustainable way.
Have you noticed any significant changes in the way you budget or save money since the introduction of new financial technology ? What do you see as the future of financial technology, and how do you think it will continue to impact the way we manage our money?
Itâs been a god send to track spending with modern day bank apps, the old style of waiting for paper statements and going through with a pen and then having to tally up is long gone!
Same goes for transferring money itâs fairly instant, back in the day it took 3-5 days between banks.
I do online-banking since around 2000 and app-banking since around 2010, I never had a problem caused by hacking, phishing or otherwise stolen data. The problem (in most cases) always sits in front of the screen.
I have a lot of friends who canât understand this, they are very afraid of being electronically robbed and they prefer the classical ways of banking as going to local bank offices or maximum telephone banking.
Here in Germany we always had a law, that you have to pick up your bank statements once a month, if you didnât, the bank sent them by mail and charged the postage and an additional service fee, even if you took a look at your account by app or online banking every day. Donât know, if this law still exists.
Can also be, that it was only a behavior of german banks, to earn more money.
Today fortunately bank statements as PDF are enough and easy to get.
Nowadays banking with my smartphone everytime gives me the overview what I have and what I can spend, everytime. Wonât miss it anymore.
People being afraid of technology, I get that, everything new here in Brazil people are already afraid of how they will be robbed by it
If wasnât for the pandemic, contactless payments would be sill a tabu here, I remember back in 2018 when Apple Pay arrived, several clerks toke away the credit card machine when seeing my taping my phone, being afraid that I would steal their money
I taught so many clerks how to accept contactless payments because they were used to insert the card, selecting debit or credit (Brazilian cards have both functions) and then insert the value + PIN.
Typing the value and then pressing the green button to select debit or credit was too much âoutside the boxâ that people didnât believe that it would work, and transaction being approved faster and without a PIN got several very suspicious at me.
Nowadays I even saw some senior persons using contactless by card on the bakery.
Every medal has two sides, I can understand some of that concerns about technology and this concerns also myself. Every technology can be abused by governments. For example I will never use a pure digital currency voluntarily, no matter how comfortable it seems and what they promise, if not forced to do that someday.
Most currencies are already digital, if you isnât using hard cash itâs just a transactional token on several banks computers.
But honestly Iâm not a cash person, I pay everything by card (credit) because itâs easier to deal with, like a purchase I did for my mother last month, the store didnât send the product and didnât reply my messages, I just told my bank, send them the PDF of the purchase receipt and the screenshot of unanswered chat from the store and got a reimbursement in 3 days on my credit card statement. (Thanks Visa I guess)
If I had paid by PIX (instantly payment, bank transfer) I would had to wait the bank deal with it, maybe they would claim that the money isnât on the receiving account anymore and would try to sell me a âPIX insuranceâ for refunding me next time that happens.
Thats right, but at the moment they could at the most lock your account. With CBDC they can define where you spend your money, for what you spend your money, freeze a part of or your whole balance, can let your money expire to the end of every month, you wonât be able to have savings. All with one push on a button or controlled by AI, linked to your social credit points account.
Government doesnât need central digital currency to freeze people money, they did it in Brazil 30 years ago, just need a few politician, a president and a pen
Even using cash it could simple loose their value because of some political intervention, if I remember correctly in India some years ago some higher currency bills become invalid to force people to deposit it in banks and prevent corruption, or that was the oficial reason, what I donât doubt.
Here in Brazil during the beginning of the pandemic was created a R$ 200 bill (that nobody asked for) and Iâm pretty sure that was only to facilitate money laundering (we have a history of politician getting caught with money on their underwear).
And why do they plan to launch CDBCs everywhere in the world, when they allegedly donât need it?
âMoney launderingâ as a pretext to abolish cash ist the same as âchildpornâ as a pretext to prohibit encrypted communication and force expansion of surveillance.
Even if I am not a cash payer anymore (health reasons), Iâm glad that Germany mainly is a cash country.
The pandemic lie of international range was also a try, to establish contactless payment here in Germany and elsewhere.
I believe CDBC are âwantedâ for trying to avoiding other digital coins to surpass the traditional money.
And because CDBC are more traceable than traditional money, imagine receiving a bill and by the serial number you could tell everybody that used it prior to you.
I believe that the only way to keep a digital coin really anonymous is if you put it on a hardware wallet and exchange it (the whole wallet) for goods/services (in person) and the other person does the same without moving money in/out the wallet because would be linked to who used it.
Theoretically itâs possible, people did it with cheques in the past where the person who fills it and the one who finally deposit it arenât connected in any way, but seems to be too inconvenient for regular persons to do and mostly only criminals or really paranoid persons would resort this practice.
@Eudes, related to your home country, just read on an alternative german/austrian news site:
âTotalitarian functions revealed in Brazilian CDBC currencyâ.
âThe current test form of the digital Brazilian real can freeze funds, withdraw credit and more. The functions were revealed when the source code was analysed.â
âŚ
And even if you argue that all that just can happen today, yes, but you can everytime change over to another bank account. With an one and only CDBC account in future you wonât be able to do that anymore, you will be a fully slave of the system.
Well thatâs already possible today, on an real exemple:
If I have a unpaid debt, generally on taxes (or doesnât vote and donât justify to justice department why I didnât vote twice in a roll) not only my bank accounts will be frozen and credit card suspended, but my passport is suspended/cancelled too.
Some time ago I believe that even a suspension of a drivers license was also incorporated to it, except for âprofessional driversâ that may need the driver license to work.
The account withdrawal function probably is because if a judge orders you to pay something and you donât obey, like you have a son and doesnât pay the child support, not only a judge will order the central bank to notifies all banks to frozen/withdraw the amount due from your accounts to pay for it, but also the police will arrest you.
Thatâs just an everyday operation that exists to comply with the law, could be abused? Obviously!
But in case of abuse, that may happens even without it, if a government decides to block all international transactions to prevent people of sending money abroad, they already can do it and the banks will have to comply.
Iâm not saying that CBDC is perfect, but the âevil functionsâ you presented are just functions that exists already for a plausible reason.
I think you underestimate the evil functions of CDBC. Saying something in a social network against the government? Instantly the half of your balance is gone. Going to a supermarket to buy some meat? Sorry, you canât buy more meat this month due to exceedance of your CO²-contingent, you are only allowed to buy bugs or vegetables. You canât buy this bottle of cola, because your health records say, your BMI is exceeded over normal. And so on. Total loss of freedom.
Youâll own nothing and youâll be happy! (Klaus Schwab, WEF)
Opportunity makes the thief. (And the purpose of consumer protection laws is to be a stronghold )
2 Likes
Copyright Š 2015 Revolut Limited, registered in England and Wales. Company No. 08804411.
Revolut Ltd (No. 08804411) is authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority under the Electronic Money Regulations 2011 (Firm Reference 900562)..
Registered address: 7 Westferry Circus, Canary Wharf, London, England, E14 4HD.
Insurance related-products are provided by Revolut Travel Ltd which is authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority to undertake insurance distribution activities (FCA No: 780586) and by Revolut Ltd, an Appointed Representative of Revolut Travel Ltd in relation to insurance distribution activities. Revolut Ltd is an Appointed Representative of Lending Works Ltd for the activity of âoperating an electronic system for lendingâ. Trading and investment services are provided by Revolut Trading Ltd (No. 832790). Revolut Trading Ltd is an appointed representative of Sapia Partners LLP (No 550103) which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Revolut Trading Ltd is a wholly owned subsidiary of Revolut Ltd.
,
With mobile banking apps, you can now check your account balance, pay bills, and even deposit checks from the comfort of your couch (while binge-watching your favourite TV show, of course). And if youâre the kind of person who loves to stay on top of their finances, there are tons of personal finance apps available that will help you track your spending, create budgets, and so much more. Who needs a financial advisor when you have a robot that can do it all for you? 
Technology is definitely changing the game when it comes to managing money, and weâre here for it!
As we continue to push the boundaries of what is possible with technology, it is important to consider both the opportunities and challenges that come with it, and to ensure that we are using technology in a responsible and sustainable way.
