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Comment by blamazon | Hacker News Reader

Not that crazy - corruption and malfeasance are primary risks to your effective yield when trying to distribute aid like that. Middle-men and middle-women inevitably appear, one to one authentication is one way to keep them away.

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This just moves the puck. No chance in hell this technology is not abused.

It moves the puck… to the United Nations. I fail to see the problem here.

The United Nations might not be as clear of corruption as you might think. If you've spent any time in the global public health apparatus, you probably know how bad it is (this is my exposure to UN initiatives). I don't think public health is special, and I'm sure most of the other UN-sponsored global projects have also had to line a lot of pockets.

The problem is the "what", not the "who".

The problem as I see it is the consolidation of power. Add to that instant global enforcement along with the current state of surveillance, an elite group of people have an insane amount of control.

The UN is not the most effective and corruption-free organization I know of.

> Middle-men and middle-women inevitably appear ...

So, Palantir is the middle-er... person in this context?

Something about 'the devil you know', I guess. Don't blame me, I'm not in charge of the world.

but i hope you can appreciate the ugliness of a situation were a shady for-profit org decides if you get someting to eat and is incentivised to err on the side of fraud-prevention

One to one authentication is a middleman.

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