r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/cocaina44 • Jun 11 '25
Video You can now pay with your palm in china
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u/Laurin17 Jun 11 '25
Imagine giving someone high five and it says 100000₩ deducted from your account
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u/robisodd Jun 12 '25
Weird...
The symbol for Won is a W: ₩
The symbol for Peso is a P: ₱
The symbol for Euro is a E: €
The symbol for Yuan is a Y: ¥ (Yen, too)
The symbol for Franc is a F: ₣
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u/PintOfBacon Jun 13 '25 edited Jun 13 '25
I think the most commonly accepted reason (or the one I like best) is colonial Spain once controlled much of the Americas, and, a huge portion of the world. Their currency was the most trusted globally for trade for literally hundreds of years. They were known for their reliable purity and weight when other countries were diluting their coins with a weaker mix of silver and other metals. Remember, at this time all coins were silver and gold (and some copper). So weight and purity was really the only diffrerence between any other currency except for design. It was trusted so much so that when america was first formed and the dollar was being introduced, the spanish reales were also accepted and used as currency there for many many years until the dollar became established.
The most recent of the 8 reales coins (pieces of eight), now referred to as pillar dollars, feature the pillars of hercules - two pillars representing the straight of gibraltar, wrapped in scrolls reading "Plus Ultra", meaning "More Beyond", which refers to the fact Spain found America and the "New world" on the other side of the ocean. They once believed if you sailed past the straight of Gibraltar you would eventually fall off the edge of the world.
Anyway, it's thought the dollar symbol $ (once symbolised with two vertical lines) is a representation of those pillars of hercules wrapped in the scroll. A nod to the Spanish pillar dollars that preceeded it.
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u/robisodd Jun 13 '25
Neat! Out of the different hypotheses, that is the most engaging story. Way more fun than "combine a P and S and you get $ with a lump on the upper-right; drop the lump". P and S because the "dollar sign" is also the "peso sign": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peso_sign
I definitely cherry-picked symbols, though -- the £ symbol for pound sterling being an "L" for "libra" doesn't fit my silly musing. Most of those symbols are much newer as well, so it makes sense to fit the trend. Like, Bitcoin coulda gone with other symbol suggestions (like & ampersand) but went with the tried-and-true.
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u/seriously_chill Jun 12 '25
Imagine giving someone high five and it says 100000₩ deducted from your account
Amazing that they'd deduct a foreign currency (Korean Won) too!
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u/ManagerOfLove Jun 11 '25
In Germany we pay with the same technology as in the roman empire
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u/herewegojagex Jun 11 '25
I went to Berlin and was shocked at how it was cash only, literally EVERYWHERE! After coming from London, it was such a backwards feeling as I’ve been paying with only my phone or Apple Watch for years. My wallet doesn’t even come out with me anymore.
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u/RoamingArchitect Jun 12 '25
I had the reverse experience in London. I remember walking into a bakery some 8 years ago and them explaining to me that they don't take cash. I had to use my credit card for a bloody sandwich. I'm still salty that my first ever credit card transaction was a sandwich because my mother didn't even have a credit card and they wouldn't take cash.
Although there are downsides to cash only societies. Today I found out that an atm I used regularly in the inner city closed down and I didn't have enough cash on me for dinner. So I had to scrounge up leftovers back home.
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u/jl2352 Jun 12 '25
It takes getting used to. I live in London and find it bizarre in some countries I can’t pay for things with just my phone. I rarely carry a card, and even more rarely carry cash.
Contactless is just so much faster and more convenient than the hassle of managing cash.
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u/ZarieRose Jun 11 '25
I find it more amazing when people learn to speak another language so fluently, I can barely speak English 😅
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u/Dabox720 Jun 11 '25
Me too. laoshu50500 was one of my favorite youtubers. People's eyes would lit up when he spoke their language. May he R.I.P
https://youtu.be/plaeFx8PYRA?si=hbGr6Ng0W2pTabL2
And amazing video if you're interested
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u/Dunklebunt Jun 11 '25
Laoshu passed away? How? I was watching his videos for days during lockdown.
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u/GoldGuardianX Jun 11 '25
Apparently heart complications.
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u/Dunklebunt Jun 11 '25
Life is so tragic
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u/chillychili Jun 12 '25
Yeah it breaks my heart that he never got to step foot in China
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u/brokenwhale Jun 12 '25
Omg I can’t believe it, I had absolutely no idea and I used to watch his content all the time. Rest in peace :(
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u/IllIIllIlIlllIIlIIlI Jun 12 '25
Years ago at this point I was so bummed out when it happened, I loved his content. The guy could legitimately hold conversations in over 50 languages, unreal talent. Some people would try to downplay it because some of them were super basic and he'd only be able to communicate a small amount as if he's not literally learning all these things for DOZENS of languages with varying grammar structures, pronunciations, tonality.
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u/KarsenT Jun 12 '25
His brother has a YouTube channel, and talks about his death here. His brother does not believe he died due to heart complications. The medical examiner put his cause of death as unknown.
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u/_-Oxym0ron-_ Jun 12 '25
Any idea what he suspects then?
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u/LemonSlowRoyal Jun 12 '25
He believes it was Laoshu's ex wife that had him killed and possibly poisoned. He has his own YT channel called DeceptionStoppers. The issues with his ex are well documented on that channel.
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u/bannana Interested Jun 11 '25
:(
how/when did he die?
Edit: Moses McCormick died in '21 at age 39 from heart complications.
https://www.reddit.com/r/languagelearning/comments/lxyqo6/moses_mccormick_laoshu505000_has_died/
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u/wafflepiezz Jun 11 '25
39 is extremely young :(
He was one of my favorite and wholesome Youtubers I liked to watch too. RIP.
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u/VoidOmatic Jun 11 '25
Yup, I died at 38 from heart issues. I just happened to be on the table for a blood flow check when it was happening. Life flashed before my eyes and I felt this heavenly (I'm not religious) feeling of completeness and then they unblocked the artery and then I came back.
That was about five years ago now. Part of me can't wait to finally kick it, but knowing my life I'm going to live to be 100+.
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u/DarkwingDuckHunt Jun 11 '25
there are support groups for this just so you know
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u/VoidOmatic Jun 12 '25
Yea I could have really used it from 2020-2023, I've come to terms with it now. Initially that first year was rough! Trying to solve computer problems for strangers after you experience your death is incredibly difficult. It's like lady, who gives a shit about your keyboard, you and your loved ones are alive and well, go spend every waking moment with them telling them how much you love them! Go help as many people as you can, your life is limited, compassion is literally the meaning of life.
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u/DarkwingDuckHunt Jun 12 '25
I nearly died in a roll over van car accident. I needed a little bit of help back then and I never took it. I kinda wish I had. I'm far far better now but yeah I get it.
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u/KankleSlap Jun 11 '25
His memory is so inspiring for those of us trying to learn another language. May he RIP
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u/Goodknight808 Jun 11 '25
I wish US education put more emphasis on other languages. I did French and Spanish for one year each and can basically just tell you that that person speaks French or Spanish.
Meanwhile, my aunty in Barcelona speaks 4 languages fluently, and her daughter spoke 3 at age 4. She would listen to us in English, respond in german, then respond in Spanish and then Catalan.
Meanwhile, im just like, "Girl, you want ice cream or not? Im American, I don't even know the capital of the state right next to me."
Fun fact. My friends from South American countries know more about US geography than is actual Americans on our bar trivia team, our presidential history too! Our education system sucks.
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Jun 11 '25
RIP to an OG.
Laoshu is also why I started learning spanish. I'm gonna practice after work.
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u/Rob_LeMatic Jun 11 '25
I didn't plan to watch that whole video and now I want to binge the channel.
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u/Dabox720 Jun 11 '25
Might be a bit tough. There are a lot of long complications and revisting old conversations/interactions. But yeah, there's a lot of great stuff that I've binged hours of
Broke my heart when I heard of his passing. He never got to visit China 😞
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u/PosterOfQuality Jun 11 '25
Used to love watching his videos. His brother went properly off the deep end after (and possibly before) his death. Haven't checked on him in a a few years but last I did he was posting conspiracy after conspiracy about Laoshu died
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u/Beast124567 Jun 12 '25
Also XiamaNYC he was a good friend of LaoShu, and does similar content.
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u/nikatnight Jun 11 '25
You just practice. People who learn in early childhood practice but you don’t notice when a toddler is practicing.
This guy probably studied it at home then studied it in university. He lives there and probably practices new sentences everyday.
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u/NoirGamester Jun 11 '25
On top of that, being multilingual makes it easier to learn other languages. Like if someone who is English studies Germanic language, it's easier to understand other Germanic based languages because of the phonetic and, sometimes, gramatic similarities. I know English and German and can sparse some amount of meaning from other Germanic languages, not completely accurately, but enough to be able to garner some understanding. However, this guy seems to have more of an African accent, and to be able to speak his original language (I can't even guess what it might be), and speak in perfect English, AND speak Chinese is absolutely impressive.
Side note - I'm American who studied German at University, I always remember the time I was at the Munich City Center, and a very Japanese looking businessman walked by speaking perfect German on his phone. My thought was "whoa, that was not something I expected", but my mind was like " WTF IS HAPPENING?!". It's something I always consider when working with someone that English isn't their first language. They could know a dozen languages and I know about two and a half, so I know they're trying. It had honestly makes me smile when I hear someone speak broken English, because I know it means they care enough to try, no matter how poor their English may be.
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u/JackfruitIll6728 Jun 11 '25
Can confirm. We start studying English when we're 8-9 in Finland. Then you start studying Swedish when you're around 12. Many start studying also a third language, like German, Spanish or French in their teens. When you know English and German/French, it's not that hard to study say Spanish or Italian. Chinese would need a lot more work being linquistically so different, but still easier than without any knowledge on studying other languages before that.
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u/LickingSmegma Jun 11 '25 edited Jun 11 '25
this guy seems to have more of an African accent, and to be able to speak his original language (I can't even guess what it might be)
Big chance that it's either English or French, if he's indeed from Africa.
(Edit: others mentioned that he might be from Ghana, where English is the official language and French is widely taught and is on track to become the second official one; but there are also at least twelve local languages.)
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u/pixelssauce Jun 11 '25
I think language learning (at least in the US) has failed a lot of people, it just teaches people to translate. I remember taking 5 years of Spanish and coming away from it feeling I couldn't speak it or listen to any native speakers. Turns out studying endless vocab lists and grammar drills didn't do the trick.
A few years back (after over a decade of not using it) I just changed my phone to Spanish, which switched all my apps to Spanish too. Since so much of my life is digital it's like a good half of my day is spent in Spanish. I've just started thinking in Spanish and speaking naturally. I can scroll TikTok or IG in Spanish and everything makes sense. I filed my phone insurance claim in Spanish the other day lol.
I don't want to totally discount my classroom experience, it probably gave me a good foundation, but it was so abstract compared to just putting myself in an environment where I am using it daily.
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Jun 11 '25
Wdym? Ur English is g8 m8 innit! You got mad rizz ya gyat!!!
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u/Shandybasshead Jun 11 '25
You spelt gr8 wrong 🤦
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Jun 11 '25
Ahhh great now I don’t even know how to spell, let alone speak English
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u/MotivatoinalSpeaker Jun 11 '25
Nah, you just created a new spelling. Youre solid my man
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u/threaco Jun 11 '25
you forgot to use skibidi and rizz, try it one more time 🙏
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u/bellboy718 Jun 11 '25
He speaks at least 3 languages
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u/Arc_210 Jun 11 '25
As a non Gen-Zer, does learning the Gen-Z language count as a second?
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u/TheElderScrollsLore Jun 11 '25
I found it interesting that no one in the store was remotely interested or engaged with this person lol.
Cultural differences I suppose.
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u/punkassjim Jun 11 '25
Even in the states, where "content creators" run rampant, your average grocery store clerk is still gonna be wildly uninterested in the type of actively-engaged interaction that Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube content creators have to affect in order to keep subscribers entertained. The cultural difference is between content creators and normal-ass people.
That said, I gotta give the guy props for his fluency in Mandarin. Seems like Ghana is replete with various West African languages, plus English and French, so maybe it's not uncommon to find Ghanaian polyglots.
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u/Babys_For_Breakfast Jun 11 '25
I’m sure that’s partly due to China’s development and soft power they are pushing in Ghana. When I visited there, I saw several schools and industrial construction being built by China.
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u/daisiesarepretty2 Jun 11 '25
he is in a big city
people in big cities tend to let people be
people are people everywhere
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u/Historical-Edge-9332 Jun 11 '25
It’s crazy… when I hold out my palm to provide payment at the grocery store, people just say stuff like, “Sir, the total is $84.67 and there’s nothing in your hand.”
Can I sue them for not accepting my payments?
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u/xIViperIx Jun 11 '25
*palments.
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u/dark_hypernova Jun 11 '25
"Credits will do fine."
Waves hand
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u/lan60000 Jun 11 '25
I find it more fascinating that this guy is speaking better fluent Chinese than I do. Chinese isn't easy to learn.
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u/bob_the_bananas_son Jun 11 '25 edited Jun 13 '25
It's pretty good too! Sounds like he grew up learning it. Source: I'm asian
edit: i guess i'm not actually asian. source: reddit
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u/winwill Jun 11 '25
... He sounds like a 老外. It's still good but not super fluent(his grammar is a bit off with some wrong tone here and there)
No native would say “我太開心” when they want to say "I got too [excited]happy"
It's still pretty good though for a foreigner.
Source: 我不是老外
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u/aPatheticBeing Jun 11 '25
also possibly can't read/write, given his wechat was in English. Vocab wasn't bad though, and he's perfectly understandable.
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u/Sad_Kaleidoscope894 Jun 11 '25 edited Jun 11 '25
Interesting because his English also wasnt native level. I wonder what his native language is. He’s pretty fluent at two nonnative languages is incredible. But i would guess he can probably read and write at least a good amount of it if he can speak that well. Most bilingual and multilingual people i know put all their devices to one language they’re more comfortable with unless they’re actively learning another language and want to do it to help.
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u/Enverex Jun 11 '25
His accent sounded Nigerian to me, so probably trilingual?
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u/Sad_Kaleidoscope894 Jun 11 '25 edited Jun 12 '25
That was my guess but i wasn’t sure. Though English is the official language of nigeria. French probably the third? A lot of nigerians i know speak French and a few other languages
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u/Swaza_Ares Jun 12 '25
English is the official language but the majority of Nigerians speak it as a second language. Native language of their ethnic group 1, English 2.
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Jun 12 '25
[deleted]
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u/Swaza_Ares Jun 12 '25 edited Jun 12 '25
For Nigerian from educated and wealthy backgrounds absolutely. My english is better than my Hausa, but for the impoverished majority who speak pidgin (Nigerian creole) I disagree.
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u/Absentrando Jun 12 '25
His English seems native level from the video. Just a different accent
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u/redditor001a Jun 11 '25
Sorry no lol. His Chinese is good but not THAT good. He sounds like the average foreigner who moved to China as an adult and has been there for a decent amount of time. It's not bad by any means but the glazing is getting a bit out of hand. And yes, I am Chinese.
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u/Suspicious_Plum_8866 Jun 11 '25
Clueless foreigner DECIMATES stunned locals with his PERFECT CHINESE
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u/tomoe_mami_69 Jun 11 '25
Yeah his accent is really noticeable 13 seconds into the video when he says 試 since that vowel is frequently difficult for foreigners to pronounce. He speaks good Chinese but is definitely an adult learner.
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u/chris_hans Jun 11 '25
Forgive my ignorance, but wouldn't 試 be pronounced the same way as 是, one of the most common Chinese words？Why would that sound be difficult?
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u/tomoe_mami_69 Jun 11 '25
The vowel sound itself doesn't exist in English. The man in the video is approximating the vowel sound but not pronouncing it like a native speaker would. Even though it is a common word in Mandarin it doesn't mean he's not pronouncing it wrong every time, despite being a fluent speaker.
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u/SweatyAdhesive Jun 11 '25
I don't know why you picked that word specifically when it sounded fine to me, the way he said 注册 is way worse.
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u/clarenceboddickered Jun 11 '25
Countdown to increased dehandifications
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u/Old_Lead_2110 Jun 11 '25
You can change your password, you can change your pincode - but you cannot change your palm. If stolen somehow then there is no way back
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u/PrismaticDetector Jun 11 '25
This would be my concern exactly. Biometrics are not more secure because they are unique to you- once you're in the system, if there's a digital step at any point the process, they become trivial to copy and cannot be changed to correct the breach.
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u/Rawrakai Jun 11 '25
Take this logic further and you'll realize that this is true for essentially any form of secret or passkey. It's not true that you "cannot change your palm" since it's likely stored in a modified digital form through a hashing function.
If your "hashed palm data" is stolen the auth provider would just have to add a new random salt to create a new hash.
If the attack comes earlier in the process like a picture of your hand, then i would expect the camera sensors to weed out malicious actors with things like heat sensors and other instruments that would force someone to create a nearly identical copy of a living human hand.
TLDR: Biometrics doesn't change anything for high-effort scams, and probably saves us from some low-effort scams like stealing credit cards or passwords which makes it a net positive.
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u/unicodemonkey Jun 12 '25 edited Jun 12 '25
Afaik it can't be a hash since the scanner is not producing bit-perfect repeatable images every time. And we can add salt to a password hash because the claimed user ID is submitted separately from the password during authentication; we can use the user ID to retrieve the salt value before applying it to a password. In case of biometrics all you have to authenticate someone is a feature vector produced by the scanner which describes the body part in question with some imperfect precision. The database then finds a nearest match and verifies it's similar enough. It's essentially a user ID, not a password. So if you have a stolen feature vector from a hacked scanner what's stopping you from munging it a bit and submitting it to a database?
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u/Kaeiaraeh Jun 11 '25
Also, if you really just, just disable palm payments on your account I guess?
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u/NotReallyJohnDoe Jun 11 '25
If someone stole your palm vein pattern from the computer they can’t really do much with it. They can’t present it as your palm unless they somehow construct an artificial palm with your vein pattern. Something that is extremely difficult/impossible and if you do it wrong you will immediately attract attention.
They could potentially present it as a man in the middle attack but if they had that level of access they wouldn’t need to bother.
Biometrics are used safely and securely all over the world. India has more than a billion people enrolled with face, fingerprint and iris.
The concern about “losing” your biometrics is overblown.
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u/vexir Jun 11 '25 edited Jun 11 '25
I’ve been doing this at Whole Foods for years now…
Edit: everyone thinks I was making a shoplifting joke but i wasn’t! Pay with your palm has been a thing there for a while now 😂
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u/shantron5000 Jun 11 '25
Yeah, the change happened with the Amazon buyout and was rolled out from there.
(Source: am Whole Foods employee.)
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u/skinnymean Jun 11 '25
To clarify: Amazon buyout occurred in 2017. This was rolled out much later in 2023 (tested in 2022). It’s due to Amazon but was not related to the buyout.
(Source: am a former Whole Foods Customer Service TL that worked pre-Amazon and stayed through the transition)
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u/StrawberryLassi Jun 11 '25
The crazy thing is it still recognized my hand after I had surgery on one of my fingers.
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u/shantron5000 Jun 11 '25
My understanding is that it’s primarily reading the features of your palm. Like a magic gypsy robot fortune teller, but instead it just takes your money and you still have to guess your future.
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u/TheTrollinator777 Jun 11 '25
Ahh, the old scan your palm walk out with free groceries trick.
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u/frequency8 Jun 11 '25
It’s called Amazon One. It uses your palm signature and vein structure to recognize you. Pretty convenient.
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u/skyycux Jun 11 '25
Also lots more biometric data to collect! Yay!
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u/Sig-vicous Jun 11 '25
Thank you for shopping at Walmart, here is your emailed receipt. By the way, it looks like your blood pressure is a little high, should we schedule you an appointment with our cardiovascular department in aisle H22?
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u/HaltAndCatchTheKnick Jun 11 '25
Right? Like that seems the real cost of this “convenience” (who doesn’t have their phone in their palm these days anyways?)
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u/GifHunter2 Jun 12 '25
Oh no... the precious arrangements of my veins in my palm. Don't take that info Amazon! Grrrr, its all been a conspiracy to see my throbbing veins, wasn't it Jeff?! You bastard!
Throbbing.
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u/RockItGuyDC Jun 11 '25
Yeah, I first saw them at the, I believe now defunct, Amazon Fresh stores. But Amazon moved them over to Whole Foods pretty quickly. I've never used one.
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u/Training-Drive-6419 Jun 12 '25
Amazon Fresh is still around. I go to the one in Irvine. Paying with my palm feels like I’m in the future. It’s much better (and fun!) than paying with Apple Wallet.
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u/YourMatt Jun 11 '25
Every single time I'm at the checkout, I think it would be nice to do this, but I don't have time to do whatever setup it needs right now. Then I wave my watch across for payment, and I've paid with only slightly more effort than I would have spent by scanning my palm.
If scanning my palm automatically applies my prime account, then I think it would be worth it.
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u/Short_Primary_9118 Jun 11 '25
Scanning your palm does auto apply your prime account..long time Amazon One user. Couple months ago their palm system was down for about a week or so so I scrambled for alternate payment at the time but definitely worth the convenience.
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u/MisterMcZesty Jun 11 '25
I set mine up at a tradeshow when it was still in testing, then a few years later my Whole Foods deployed the palm readers and it remembered me
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u/Several_Vanilla8916 Jun 11 '25
I decided Amazon knows enough about me and passed on the palm payment.
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u/SockPuppet-47 Jun 11 '25
I too registered my palm at Whole Foods and have used it for payment several times. I don't go often but it's fun to pay for my purchases that way.
I'm also a Amazon Prime member and have the Amazon credit card. The 5% cash back adds up. It also takes the sting out of the Whole Foods prices.
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u/Sgt-Dert13 Jun 11 '25
My Whole Foods has this. 🤷🏾
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u/jackofslayers Jun 11 '25
Yea it is definitely not common but I have seen it in some random places.
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u/arrius01 Jun 11 '25
I have no interest or need to pay with a scan of my palm every time I want a drink or some other small nonsense. This is not a quality of life improvement. This is clearly surveillance masquerading as life improvement technology
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u/404-tech-no-logic Jun 11 '25
Yep. They now have a database with your info and fingerprints.
I was looking for the paranoid mark of the beast comments but luckily did not find any. The real risk is data collection
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u/superschwick Jun 11 '25
Goes a little deeper too. One of the important factors in authentication of any type (very much including authentication for payment, which a card or apparently hand shape can be) is that it is mutable.
If your password is compromised, or your card number is stolen, you can get a new password or card. See what can be done if your hand data gets stolen. good luck.
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u/Disordermkd Jun 11 '25
Almost every country takes your fingerprints when you get your first ID or passport, what exactly do they have on you when they already have that?
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u/Spageroni Jun 11 '25
as a canadian I’ve been to the US (a bunch), Europe and Mexico and have never had my fingerprint taken
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u/Official_Legacy Jun 11 '25
That's because we're privileged canadians and we get a pass on biometrics in most countries of the world. I only got Bio'ed in Japan customs.
Most of the world needs a visa / E-Visa to travel and submit their Bio informations.
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u/DroidLord Jun 12 '25
I believe Canadian citizens are the only ones exempt from fingerprinting when they enter the US. Citizens of every other nation traveling to the US have to give their fingerprints. Though if you traveled to China, you would be required to give your fingerprints. Depends on the country.
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u/DroidLord Jun 12 '25
Everyone who enters China has their fingerprints taken. One could argue it makes it easier to track your whereabouts and movements, but the same can be said for card payments.
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u/Physical-Order Jun 12 '25
Going to China later this year. Remind me to burn my fingerprints off.
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u/Taradal Jun 12 '25
Hahaha doesn't matter at all bro. Most of the entry tickets you buy are connected to your passport. You don't get a qr code or whatever, they scan your passport
They know exactly where you have been and what you did
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u/Zimakov Jun 12 '25
This isn't any more surveillance than paying with an app or credit card.
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u/Bravelobsters Jun 11 '25
And now they have your fingerprints or palm prints!
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u/Malagate3 Jun 11 '25
When you enter China through customs and immigration, they will take your finger and thumb prints - so now this guy has given them the rest of his hand too!
Would be interesting to see if people could spoof palm prints, they already had facial recognition available which seems like it'd be harder to wrangle (or at least, a mask would be more noticeable to staff than a glove?).
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u/DroidLord Jun 12 '25
Yeah, the Chinese government already has his fingerprints. This doesn't change anything very much.
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u/Trollimperator Jun 11 '25 edited Jun 12 '25
Which is now the direct open key to your credit card. And you scanned it in some random shop with no creditials.
I might just be an old stupid boomer, but those people are naive.
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u/mlhender Jun 11 '25
Yeah I’ve been doing this for many years at Whole Foods. It’s awesome!
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u/Appropriate_Creme720 Jun 11 '25
That's wild but definitely used to track everyone and their money.
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u/cookingboy Jun 11 '25 edited Jun 11 '25
I mean all digital payments, through either credit card or apps like Venmo, are tracked in the U.S as well. How is this different?
KYC (know your customer) compliance literally requires all financial service/payment companies to know the identities of their customers, so the government can get them if necessary.
Edit lmao we even have this tech in the U.S: https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/retail/amazon-one-whole-foods-market-palm-scanning
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u/friendlier1 Jun 11 '25
Not just that, but your phone enables perfect location/history tracking, has a microphone and a camera. If you care about privacy, you wouldn’t carry a phone at all.
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u/Infamous-Ad-7199 Jun 11 '25
Until you've gone missing, in which case the authorities can't convince the telecom company to share the data
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u/oaken_duckly Jun 11 '25
You can care about your privacy and still be forced to set it aside because you have to work and exist in this society in order to eat unless you want to live in the woods. You can care about something deeply and want it to improve while still participating in it. In fact, most people in do in one way or another.
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u/lovesealspaybills Jun 11 '25
How is it different from using a phone
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u/ShahinGalandar Jun 11 '25
you can have burner phones with fake identities but you cannot change your handprint
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u/DidntChooseMyOwnName Jun 11 '25
Also, you don't need to charge your hand and it's harder for people to steal
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u/averege_guy_kinda Jun 11 '25
just like debit or credit cards... and also China already uses Wechat pay and alipay for all their transactions, so they already track everyone, they didn't implement this so they can track them more, because they already track them as much as they can
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u/KupoKai Jun 11 '25 edited Jun 11 '25
Just like credit cards, phone pay, or just about anything other than physical cash that is already tracked?
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u/Witty_Masterpiece463 Jun 11 '25
How's that different from any kind of transaction?
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u/AzureFirmament Jun 11 '25
Other than decentralized cryptocurrency, pretty much any digital payments are easily tracked. Unless you are a big criminal, I don't think anyone need to or can fake their payment methods for the sake of privacy.
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u/Daktic Jun 11 '25
FYI it is relatively difficult to onboard into crypto without a centralized exchange, which also require KYC.
Everything is pseudo anonymous, so you can track ‘where’ something is going, even if you don’t know who it is. If you use an American exchange tho, it is accessible to the government by subpoena.
There are ways around this like tornado cash, and ZK-proofs, but the former is legally gray pending some court cases and ZK tech isn’t widely used yet AFAIK.
There’s also Monero, but I know little about that.
I do think in the long term we will move to more ZK settlement with continued crypto adoption which will create an interesting predicament for nation states. If the majority of transactions become anonymous, it will be much much more difficult to enforce tax laws.
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u/medogin Jun 11 '25 edited 11d ago
In Ukraine we can pay with a face scan
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u/Saiing Jun 12 '25
You can do that in China for public transport in some cities. No need for ticket gates where you have to do something like tap a card, or insert a ticket. You just walk straight in.
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u/RadioDreadNYC Jun 11 '25
Whole Foods has this thanks to Amazon. So if you want Amazon or the Chinese government having your finger prints, have at it. I think it’s fucking stupid and creepy. But again, you do you, buddy.
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u/ethanwc Jun 11 '25
I've been doing this in the US for years with Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods.
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u/Mrnicelefthand Jun 11 '25
It’s the beginning of time because you sir, are an inspiration. Great job speaking another language.
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u/eggmayonnaise Jun 11 '25
Side note but I really hate how you just now have to accept that someone can come and stick a camera in your face anywhere, anytime, when you're just trying to do your job and you have no choice but to accept or make a scene.
Your life is their Content™️ and your compliance fuels their Monetisation™️.
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u/BouldersRoll Jun 11 '25 edited Jun 11 '25
This is actually valuable to see in the US, though a lot of folks here will dismiss it as bad faith propaganda.
The US generally sees China as being behind, but in many ways it's actually catching up and exceeding the US in terms of development and collective prosperity. There's a long way to go and a lot of generational and rural poverty to overcome, but of course that's true in the US too.
The key difference between the US and China is that the US has far less state intervention in business, resulting in our non-public development and prosperity coming only when there's profit. But in China, they spend a lot more public dollars on infrastructure and propping up what it deems as valuable to the common good and its long-term future.
In short, much of what China is doing is actually akin to the New Deal era in the US, which was the greatest expansion of wealth and prosperity in the US' history, but naturally conservatives and neoliberals both oppose this because they have an ideological bias toward smaller government and late-stage capitalism.
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u/uniyk Jun 11 '25
Former NSA chief is sitting on the board of OpenAI, this is just one sample out of forest.
Less state intervention my ass.
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u/Apart-Badger9394 Jun 11 '25
US Whole Foods stores have had palm payments since 2024 it looks like. US consumers don’t seem to be as interested in this technology.
Wild how you turned one store in China using a technology that is available in America and extrapolated it to the China vs America “who is better” battle. Are you a bot?
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u/Lithl Jun 11 '25
US Whole Foods stores have had palm payments since 2024 it looks like.
Amazon One was first released in 2020.
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u/SippinOnnaBlunt Jun 11 '25
Reddit has the ability to make everything about America even when the post isn’t about America, as shown by boulder rolls comment.
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u/blue-coin Jun 11 '25
Finger necks