Hacker News: throwaway473825

New comment by throwaway473825 in "Brazil's Pix payment system faces pressure from Visa and Mastercard"

throwaway473825 — Fri, 08 May 2026 09:06:34 +0000

Card fees aren't paid by end customers either. The Swedish iDEAL equivalent, Swish, is more expensive than cards for smaller transactions (below 15 euros). Wero will be like Swish, not Pix.

New comment by throwaway473825 in "Brazil's Pix payment system faces pressure from Visa and Mastercard"

throwaway473825 — Fri, 08 May 2026 08:54:57 +0000

The EU would obviously benefit from a digital euro, but the banks won't give up without a fight:

https://euperspectives.eu/2026/02/digital-euro-timeline-at-r...

>Private banks are resistant to a digital euro both as a payment method and a store of value. The digital euro is designed to be a free, public payment method, directly challenging fee-based systems operated by banks. This is its key usefulness in terms of sovereignty. But it could also be used as a digital wallet and users may move their money out of private bank accounts to central bank-backed digital euro wallets meaning banks lose out.

So far they have successfully delayed any implementation.

New comment by throwaway473825 in "Brazil's Pix payment system faces pressure from Visa and Mastercard"

throwaway473825 — Fri, 08 May 2026 06:48:51 +0000

Most likely because your country's banks are heavily lobbying against such initiatives.

It's easy to blame Visa and Mastercard, but the reason why the EU doesn't have this is that the EPP (the largest political group in the European Parliament) answers to European banks, which don't want it.

New comment by throwaway473825 in "Brazil's Pix payment system faces pressure from Visa and Mastercard"

throwaway473825 — Fri, 08 May 2026 06:38:25 +0000

Sweden has a similar "initiative" set up by a consortium of banks (Swish), as do many other European countries.

Usually these systems raise their fees after being established, sometimes even higher than Visa/Mastercard.

Brazil's Pix is something else. It wasn't created by private entities to make money.

New comment by throwaway473825 in "Brazil's Pix payment system faces pressure from Visa and Mastercard"

throwaway473825 — Fri, 08 May 2026 06:31:36 +0000

The Swish system is private, which means that the fees are as high as the market can bear. In many cases cards are cheaper.

If the e-krona happens, that would be a better comparison.

New comment by throwaway473825 in "Ads on Apple Maps"

throwaway473825 — Thu, 07 May 2026 09:20:23 +0000

Of the big tech companies, Apple is definitely the one that has embraced America First the most. If you live outside the US, you get features later (if at all) and have to pay more for that privilege.

New comment by throwaway473825 in "Higher usage limits for Claude and a compute deal with SpaceX"

throwaway473825 — Wed, 06 May 2026 22:40:36 +0000

People burn coal to heat their houses. That doesn't mean it's healthy. Gas stoves are known to cause asthma.

New comment by throwaway473825 in "Asian governments roll out 4-day weeks, WFH to solve fuel crisis caused by war"

throwaway473825 — Thu, 12 Mar 2026 17:24:37 +0000

Freight will eventually go electric as well. It's crazy how fast it's happening in China:

https://www.electrive.com/2026/01/23/year-end-surge-electric...

New comment by throwaway473825 in "Sub-$200 Lidar could reshuffle auto sensor economics"

throwaway473825 — Mon, 23 Feb 2026 08:23:28 +0000

Is there anyone using only cameras except Tesla?

New comment by throwaway473825 in "Toyota’s hydrogen-powered Mirai has experienced rapid depreciation"

throwaway473825 — Sun, 22 Feb 2026 09:33:06 +0000

Hydrogen was marketed as a stopgap until batteries are good enough. Well, batteries are good enough for trucks now:

https://www.electrive.com/2026/01/23/year-end-surge-electric...

Once you go battery electric, you never go back. It's the most efficient way to move vehicles.

New comment by throwaway473825 in "Toyota’s hydrogen-powered Mirai has experienced rapid depreciation"

throwaway473825 — Sun, 22 Feb 2026 09:12:45 +0000

Liquid hydrogen loses 1% of its volume per day due to boil-off. Hydrogen is incredibly difficult to move without huge energy losses.

New comment by throwaway473825 in "Toyota’s hydrogen-powered Mirai has experienced rapid depreciation"

throwaway473825 — Sun, 22 Feb 2026 02:28:49 +0000

Buses are already largely electric (with the US as a notable exception), and trucks are quickly getting there:

https://www.electrive.com/2026/01/23/year-end-surge-electric...

Meanwhile, hydrogen trucks are nowhere to be found...

New comment by throwaway473825 in "Toyota’s hydrogen-powered Mirai has experienced rapid depreciation"

throwaway473825 — Sun, 22 Feb 2026 01:33:10 +0000

Sweden has very little natural gas in its energy mix:

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/energy-consumption-by-sou...

I highly doubt that hydrogen heating was ever considered. It's usually pushed by the gas lobby (since most hydrogen comes from gas), and Sweden doesn't have a strong gas lobby.

New comment by throwaway473825 in "Welcoming Discord users amidst the challenge of Age Verification"

throwaway473825 — Fri, 13 Feb 2026 02:10:00 +0000

The EU will probably wait until the launch of a digital wallet that can do anonymous age verification. Otherwise it won't get enough political support.

New comment by throwaway473825 in "Discord says 70k users may have had their government IDs leaked in breach"

throwaway473825 — Thu, 09 Oct 2025 04:19:09 +0000

It depends on the implementation. The EU's European Digital Identity Wallet will allow users to prove that they are over 18 without sharing any other personal information.

New comment by throwaway473825 in "Discord says 70k users may have had their government IDs leaked in breach"

throwaway473825 — Thu, 09 Oct 2025 04:12:53 +0000

On the contrary, third parties will only get to know the age of the users, not their identities.

New comment by throwaway473825 in "Visa and Mastercard: The global payment duopoly (2024)"

throwaway473825 — Fri, 25 Jul 2025 08:33:14 +0000

You're describing a CBDC, not a coin. Why isn't it being done? Because commercial banks are vehemently against that. The current administration in particular will never go against the big banks.

New comment by throwaway473825 in "Visa and Mastercard: The global payment duopoly (2024)"

throwaway473825 — Fri, 25 Jul 2025 07:20:15 +0000

That's a commercial service backed by some European banks. It's not at all comparable with a non-profit service like Brazil's Pix.

The closest EU equivalent would probably be the planned digital euro, but the banks are fighting tooth and nail to prevent that.

New comment by throwaway473825 in "Electric cars produce far less brake dust pollution than combustion-engine cars"

throwaway473825 — Thu, 24 Jul 2025 04:29:57 +0000

> Well, I like that the people that think like this also probably live I places where you are actually driving a coal powered car.

That's still an improvement for both global and local emissions.

New comment by throwaway473825 in "Electric cars produce less brake dust pollution than combustion-engine cars"

throwaway473825 — Thu, 24 Jul 2025 04:18:11 +0000

Biodiesel doesn't solve the pollution problem. It's also very expensive, and often produced in an unsustainable way.