cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/1624944
(edit: from another crosspost, apparently NL shops are operating legally)
Saw a “no cash” sign at a bakery. Conversation went like this:
me: So, no cash? What’s going on there?
cashier: Yeah, we’re not allowed to accept cash.
me: Isn’t it the other way around? Isn’t there a legal tender law in #Netherlands?
cashier: Yeah, we’re not allowed to refuse cash.
me: So this sign posting says loud and clear “we are breaking the law”, in effect, no? Is that not being enforced?
cashier: That’s right. It’s unenforced in Netherlands.
The same thing is happening in #Belgium. This kind of forces me to revise my understanding of European culture & norms. In both the US & Europe there is a culture of certain laws (rightfully) going unenforced against individual natural people. E.g. small amounts of marijuana possession. But I previously thought when it came to moral/legal people (businesses), they simply complied with the law in Europe to a great extent.
IOW, companies complied with laws in Europe. Contrast that with the US where corporations small and large will blatantly disregard any laws that interfere with profit based on the calculated risk of getting caught and risk of penalties.
I just wonder if Europe is being influenced by cavalier US corps and changing to comply only when penalties are likely. Or is this something I had wrong all along… that EU companies were always loose with compliance?
#WarOnCash
update
The original post was censored without reason by @knollebol4 @nlemmy.nl. It’s now a non-existent node, perhaps rightfully so if it’s going to use an anti-spam tool against ideas.
I read in the linked article that the upcoming digital Euro will be sort of a cryptocurrency, and is as close to digital cash as it can get. I think it’s a very interesting development. Transactions can even be made if both the sender and the receiver are offline.
Interesting. I haven’t followed development in the space of “official” crypto currencies, but my impression is that these will probably be centralized, have little to no privacy features, and that the governments will be able to control access to the funds.
But I may be wrong - maybe they are actually building decentralized crypto networks? I just find it hard to believe that a government would do this.
