Read on if you are interested in Digital security within the digital economy.
I'm an all-in Technologist and about the furthest from a conspiracy theorist you could imagine.
I was in the local mall at Marrickville feeling peckish. A salmon & avo sushi roll for $4.50 looked like it'd do the job.
I whipped out a fiver from my sky rocket and handed it over.
The bloke proceeded to feed the fiver into a slot like he was feeding a pokie or a railway vending machine.
After half a dozen hapless attempts, a lady grabs the note and has six more frustrating attempts before accepting defeat.
I watched with a mixture of amazement & frustration anticipating what was coming.
Do you have another one?, this one doesn't scan you can pay on card, she blurted out waving the obstinate fiver at me like this was all normal.
Our eyes met like a spaghetti western standoff. I drew first snatching the offending fiver.
Hows that technology working for ya? She looked blankly as I took a snap of the till and walked off without my sushi.
Cash is king Long live the king
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This was a lightbulb moment for me thinking about the technology trail.
Here I was trying to spend Australian legal tender to buy goods in Australia and a machine said no.
A Point of Sale till with a note scanner is solving a problem that doesn't exist.
Press a button, drop it in the slot and it spits out change.
So many points of failure compared to the old analogue cash tin.
I drive into the Mall and my license plate is scanned. Walking through the mall you are under constant video surveillance. You're scanned with security tag detectors. Your transactions are recorded, your cash is scanned.
The landlord of the mall gets a cut of everything. This happens in every mall across the globe.
All the while all of these machines are collecting your data.
Where does all this data go? Where is it saved, how is it used? Is it re-sold?
Most people don't think about this as it's happening in plain sight. There is no disclosure, no negotiation, no idea as it's a totally unregulated space.
I spent the fiver at my local fruit shop in exchange for 6 avos where it was met with an honest smile and $1.50 change.