PayPal is ground zero? Lol, nah, just using your credit/debit card is.
We already have digital currency, and virtually everyone in the country uses it primarily. It's just not incredibly standardized. The vast majority of us pay with credit/debit cards which is literally digital currency.
And "please enter your personal digital ID number to proceed with transaction"? We already have that. It's called a PIN... personal identification number.
2FA
2FA's typical implementation (TOTP) isn't invasive at all. While you have to use your phone, it doesn't give any access to your phone from whatever service you are using. You can even use a completely offline phone. You can use a completely open source TOTP app. You don't have to use Google or whatever.
That's not to say there aren't nefarious ways to implement it; but they should go with the normal one that is battle tested.
TOTP is nothing more than a mathematical algorithm based on the current time, and has nothing to do with any cellular, phone, or internet network. The algorithm is defined at https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc4226.html and https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc6238.html and if you have basic programming skill and can understand these documents, it's not hard to implement yourself.
There are people here, though, who don't understand this. They're convinced that TOTP is just a way for services to gain access to their phones.
It's extra hilarious because I guarantee their phone is running a version of Android that is closed-source, and they have Google Play services enabled, and everything else.
I only use cash when shopping local. I use credit cards online and pay them off so I have no debt. I know most people don't but I don't need every store knowing exactly what I am buying by linking to my CC or my CC company knowing what I buy other than a few things online.
I've always been fine with selling some of my data. The key is understanding that you are selling your data, and understanding how much of your data you are selling, and what can be done with it.
When you use Facebook, you are selling your data of what you are browsing, what you are posting, who you are friends with, etc. You are selling this in exchange for the service of Facebook.
When you use a credit card, you are selling your data of what you are buying (with that credit card). For me, this is worth it, because by using a credit card and paying it off every month, I am getting about $1k per year in rewards. It's a fair trade, in my opinion. In addition, it serves as a buffer for my monthly spending, so my checking account doesn't always need to be fully funded (I always have the money, it may just be in a savings account, etc.). These are fair trades in my book, for me. Not necessarily for everyone, though.
PayPal is ground zero? Lol, nah, just using your credit/debit card is.
We already have digital currency, and virtually everyone in the country uses it primarily. It's just not incredibly standardized. The vast majority of us pay with credit/debit cards which is literally digital currency.
And "please enter your personal digital ID number to proceed with transaction"? We already have that. It's called a PIN... personal identification number.
2FA's typical implementation (TOTP) isn't invasive at all. While you have to use your phone, it doesn't give any access to your phone from whatever service you are using. You can even use a completely offline phone. You can use a completely open source TOTP app. You don't have to use Google or whatever.
That's not to say there aren't nefarious ways to implement it; but they should go with the normal one that is battle tested.
You don't need a phone for TOTP. If you use a Google Chromium based browser, there's this extension: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/authenticator/bhghoamapcdpbohphigoooaddinpkbai which offers it. Most Linux distributions offer oathtool which can do it, and there's plenty of other implementations as well.
TOTP is nothing more than a mathematical algorithm based on the current time, and has nothing to do with any cellular, phone, or internet network. The algorithm is defined at https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc4226.html and https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc6238.html and if you have basic programming skill and can understand these documents, it's not hard to implement yourself.
Correct.
There are people here, though, who don't understand this. They're convinced that TOTP is just a way for services to gain access to their phones.
It's extra hilarious because I guarantee their phone is running a version of Android that is closed-source, and they have Google Play services enabled, and everything else.
I only use cash when shopping local. I use credit cards online and pay them off so I have no debt. I know most people don't but I don't need every store knowing exactly what I am buying by linking to my CC or my CC company knowing what I buy other than a few things online.
I've always been fine with selling some of my data. The key is understanding that you are selling your data, and understanding how much of your data you are selling, and what can be done with it.
When you use Facebook, you are selling your data of what you are browsing, what you are posting, who you are friends with, etc. You are selling this in exchange for the service of Facebook.
When you use a credit card, you are selling your data of what you are buying (with that credit card). For me, this is worth it, because by using a credit card and paying it off every month, I am getting about $1k per year in rewards. It's a fair trade, in my opinion. In addition, it serves as a buffer for my monthly spending, so my checking account doesn't always need to be fully funded (I always have the money, it may just be in a savings account, etc.). These are fair trades in my book, for me. Not necessarily for everyone, though.