I have been trying to avoid BankID and I got me a “Skatteverkets id-kort” for this purpose, it has an electronic id built into it, “e-legitimation från AB Svenska Pass”: https://www.skatteverket.se/privat/folkbokforing/idkort/elegitimationpaidkortet.4.3810a01c150939e893f8169.html – the “AB Svenska Pass” company is in practice part of Gemalto. That e-id works in Linux, so I can login to Skatteverket in Linux, without need for BankID. Then I have been looking for a bank that supports this kind of login, but not found any such bank. So far I can only login to Skatteverket using that e-id but in principle other actors like banks could support it if they wanted to, I think.
Then there is “Freja eID” but it seems they don’t support Linux.
There is a similar thing on all German id cards which can be used for electronic signatures etc. However its adoption has been abysmally slow, so in practice it is still useless.
Yes, of course it’s the usual catch 22 with these things: nobody supports it because there are no users, and noone becomes a user because there is no support for it.
But I have some hope that governments and/or EU can fix this. After all, the government can hardly say that you must be a Google/Apple customer in order to access government services. So far only Skatteverket (Swedish Tax Agency) but soon hopefully other government agencies, and then, who knows, maybe even a bank!
The current state of the EU EIDAS system (electronic identification) in the banking sector is not so good. Although eID is working it has not been adopted by the banks. For example the Swedish BankID which is used very much in Sweden does not connect to the EIDAS right now but could possibly join in the future. However, the private banks are not very keen on joining.
There has also been problems with security in some electronic identification systems and these must be solved before any larger use can be expected. There are technically advanced systems (like Freja) but it is important for us (using Linux) that these are adapted to the public rules because then the discrimination of certain platforms is easier to avoid.
Electronic identification is quite important in every payment system. It is quite upside down at the moment because I can log in to the Tax Agency using bank codes while it should rather be the other way around.
I think the worst problem is to get the merchants to accept the taler. It will be uphill to have them install software and the most realistic way would be to have a third party accepting the payments. It is after all rather usual that they use some financing company to handle their payments. So it is about convincing these companies to accept payments in taler.
I think the concept of taler is very good but compared to Swish it is simpler for a Swish user because he only needs a phone number connected to his bank account. Maybe Taler could develop some similar concept …
@all banks:
We just need a Linux app, no workarounds. Period.
You make big money with our money. In the past couple of years you have outsourced many of the banking activities (electronic banking) to us saving on staff, you are partially - if not fully - responsible for economic depression and subsequently some of you even had to rely on government support (us).
Now what’s so hard to add another app?
A proven open source concept like Linux (Pure OS) with solid usergroup/community, upcoming third OS marketshare simply deserves to have its own native app!
This is the problem of producing and using libre softwares and hardwares with non-libre money.
There is a project that appeared in France few years ago. It is called “libre money”/“monnaie libre”. The first currency launched is called Ğ1.
The core software is called Duniter and there is some additional softs to manage your account (one of them is called “Cesium”, there is an app for this one).
I will not talk too much here about that as this is not directly an answer to the thread but I believe, as one thousand people already using the Ğ1 currency, that it is time to create currencies that are in accordance with our values.
It will not replaced non-libre currencies tomorrow but hey, let’s start somewhere.
Given that there is not a lot of english documentations/videos on the libre money subject, I’d be glad to explain further what it is in another thread (or another forum if necessary), if some people here are interested.
In its latest report Riksbanken in Sweden mentions that paying with cash has gone down from 40 % 2010 to 13 % last year. Sweden and Norway has exceptionally low cash payment rates but the trend can be seen everywhere. Thus Riksbanken is planning to use an “e-krona” i.e. an electronic currency backed by Riksbanken which would replace cash. They are also planning to join TIPS (Target instant payment settlement) of EU which makes payments in seconds.
This is fairly important for Librem 5 also because payment using the smart phone is going to be a necessary part of our lives. At least in EU I suppose Android Pay and Apple Pay and the likes will have no future if they do not join TIPS which probably will be the standard system. If Linux cannot join the TIPS system we must carry around two smart phones because we simply cannot buy anything otherwise.
that is disturbing. think about what you are doing people. the less of you using cash the harder it will be for those who want to KEEP using cash to do so. be aware that what you do affects EVERYONE not just yourself ! and we are NOT ready YET for a cashless future …
In fact they are working on some scheme to help people without smartphones to be able to pay. There will be some system - maybe cards that you can load with an amount of money. Perhaps in a bankomat ? Then they can pay like using a magnetic card.
I heard rumors that there will be directives if someone is offering cash and the seller only has electronic payment available then the buyer has the right to walk away with the product free of charge. This in order to protect people without electronic devices. Anyway they are thinking about how to handle the transition period. I suppose that the cash payments this year could be under 10 % …
