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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 30th, 2023

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  • We have a fee-free bank-to-bank transfer system that is based on pre-digital technology that takes 2-3 business days. We often call it “direct deposit” or automated clearing house (ACH).

    Ah, right, kinda like SEPA Credit Transfer. You do need a persons IBAN which is a bit long, but their name is validated so you usually send it to the right person.

    Now, we could probably make this payment system instantaneous relatively effortlessly

    Ooh, cool, kinda like SEPA Instant Credit Transfer, which transfers money within ten seconds to bank accounts using the above mentioned number.

    This is all fine and dandy for most people because they simply can’t imagine doing things a more consumer-friendly way

    And that’s why, in the Netherlands, Tikkie took the country by storm. It is an app that allows you to use iDEAL (a web-based payment system, soon rolled out in Germany and Belgium as Vero) to send money to friends. Usually takes one pin and three taps to send it, and have it instantly appear on the account of the recipient.








  • I work as a bartender in a live music venue in the Netherlands.

    We, just like most festivals, used to always remove the caps from the water bottles, citing safety concerns (people would drop the bottle when empty but put the cap on, which is a nasty tripping hazard).

    So a company started to make bottlecaps that clip to your pants, and most water vendors used a single size opening, which made this feasible. People held on to their cap, and could pause drinking.

    Then water companies started to attach the cap to the bottle, to prevent litter, and the government issuing a mandate requiring us to charge per plastic unit.

    So now we leave the caps on, but as guests return about 95% of bottles and cups to the bar (buying a drink without having a cup adds a 1 eur plastic surcharge), the safety hazard is basically gone.

    As a bartender, I’d very much prefer bottles of water to cans. It allows guests to drink at their leasure, they’re easier to transport and can’t cause as much harm as a can (either by throwing or when squeezing it).

    They are slightly visually less appealing than a cool can though, I’ll give them that.