@Gurre @znurre we have a Danish card "Dankortet" which was introduced back when payment cards were increasingly becoming a thing abroad. The banks were practically begging the regulators to allow them a payment card solution; it would be so neat and efficient, and much cheaper doing transactions this way than by customers taking cash out all the time.
"How much cheaper?"
1/2
@Gurre @znurre So there was an ok from the regulators: you will get "dankortet" it will be a card without balance control.
And you, the banks, will cover these "cheap" transaction fees.
And they've been trying all they can to get rid of dankortet ever since. (The banks have) They are obligated by law to offer it to customers. And they hate it.
Feb 11, 2026, 6:41 AM@rasmus91 @znurre
That's a more detailed explanation than I've seen before of Dankortet.
Sounds like a system that ought to be in every country, really. And make them compatible using a european alternative to visa/mastercard.
The constant "we're developing a new tech" things when what we need is a new non-US, non-corporate version of existing tech does get more than a little annoying.
Feb 11, 2026, 9:10 AM@rasmus91 @Gurre I feel like Denmark are doing a lot of things right in general.
As far as I know (correct me if I am wrong), Denmark decided to make e-mail encryption mandatory, and then relied on this existing decentralized technology for sensitive communication from the government, for example.
What did Sweden do? Well, we now have private companies like Kivra providing "secure inboxes" for people. Completely centralized, and with some proprietary (although open) protocol.
@znurre @Gurre yeah, i wish this was the case, but we also have eboks, mit, and something called digital post.
I'm not sure what protocol this uses, but it's not something you can just connect your IMAP client to.
Certainly we do some things right. But Danish industry and government has for the last three decades (in the words of my colleague) been so horny for Microsoft licensed software.
But Margrethe Vestager (who helped bring USB C charging standards to EU) is from Denmark