throwaway473825

It depends on the implementation. The EU's European Digital Identity Wallet will allow users to prove that they are over 18 without sharing any other personal information.

On the contrary, third parties will only get to know the age of the users, not their identities.

You're describing a CBDC, not a coin. Why isn't it being done? Because commercial banks are vehemently against that. The current administration in particular will never go against the big banks.

That's a commercial service backed by some European banks. It's not at all comparable with a non-profit service like Brazil's Pix.

The closest EU equivalent would probably be the planned digital euro, but the banks are fighting tooth and nail to prevent that.

> Well, I like that the people that think like this also probably live I places where you are actually driving a coal powered car.

That's still an improvement for both global and local emissions.

Biodiesel doesn't solve the pollution problem. It's also very expensive, and often produced in an unsustainable way.

Sodium-ion batteries have extreme good performance in low-temperature environments. CATL is working on sodium-LFP dual-power batteries to get the best of both worlds:

https://www.catl.com/en/news/6401.html

That's mainly for EVs though.

> subsidized by a communist state, to stifle worldwide competition

China primarily wants to cut oil and gas imports. Exports are a bonus.

Heating generally uses much more energy than cooling, and even more so if something is burned.

However, it's true that places with low heat pump adoption tend to have few ACs. For example, ACs are rarer in Germany than in Norway, despite Germany being warmer.

Europe isn't optimizing for lower prices. It's trying to phase out coal, which might lead to higher prices if gas is used more often:

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/apr/20/why-the-uks...

Apple might also have helped BYD with its $10 billion car project:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-10-16/apple-sec...

>Today, BYD’s entire car lineup is powered by the Blade system, which uses a battery pack design that people involved in its development say was informed by lessons from the Apple work.

In 2023, Germany overtook Japan as the world's third largest economy. This year, India is projected to overtake Japan as the world's fourth largest economy. I wonder if the article has taken India into account.

They might still create more value than they cost. For example, a bus driver enables many people to work, but has a low wage and hence pays little in taxes.

>Yes BankID is the real MVP of digital systems, I heard some talks about the EU making one valid for the whole block.

Sweden is actually in a pickle here. The dominant but private BankID doesn't satisfy all security requirements for the EU's digital identity wallet. It just isn't profitable.

The government is now working on a public government eID with a higher security standard, but many Swedes might still be left out since adoption will take some time.

This is one of many reasons why eIDs shouldn't be run by for-profits corporations, and sadly nothing would likely have happened without pressure from the EU.

>have no fees

Both Swish and BankID have fees. After all, they're run by for-profit corporations.

Those apps also reduce competition in the banking sector since they're controlled by a few banks which generally have very high fees on their other services.

What's even worse, since BankID is private, there's no individual right to get it, and I've personally experienced banks abusing their oligopoly (buy this extra service or you won't get BankID from us).

The Swedish situation is a nightmare which nobody should try to emulate. Fortunately, the Swedish government has finally announced plans to introduce a public government eID, although 20 years too late.

That's a bad example. The US already had higher tariffs on vehicles if you include the chicken tax.

All of this is true, but it's not the main reason why EVs have taken off. Electricity generation is very flexible. You can use coal, gas, oil, nuclear, solar, wind, hydro, geothermal, and so on. Every country has something.

However, not every country has oil or gas. In fact, only a minority does. China is investing in EVs to avoid being dependent on energy imports. Many other countries are following. Russia and the US being laggards in EV adoption isn't really surprising.

Not all satellite systems are equal:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-09-20/russia-s-...

>The US constellation isn’t as accurate as the newer networks, said Roberts, the Sydney-based professor. “It used to be GPS was out in front,” he said. Now, though, the EU’s Galileo is in the lead, with China’s BeiDou close behind, he said.

It's basically Galileo > BeiDou > GPS >>> GLONASS.

If you have a 2-track line, you can close one of the tracks for maintenance on weekday nights when frequency doesn't need to be very high. That's how Copenhagen does it.

The US has a two-party system, one of the two parties opposes this,[1] and people prioritize other issues when they vote. Would Direct File even survive a Republican trifecta?

[1] https://federalnewsnetwork.com/congress/2024/06/house-gop-pr...

There isn't enough demand to burn all reserves, and nobody will burn oil for fun - it's quite expensive. Someone will be stuck with stranded assets, and currently it looks like it will be the Saudis.

There's nothing wrong with the Norwegian approach of excessive extraction combined with demand destruction. It just forces the Saudis to cut their production even more as they want to keep prices high.

There's too much focus on supply in environmental circles. The IEA forecasts an excess of a staggering 8 million barrels per day by 2030 due to peaking demand. The only question is who will have to cut this time.

Most places where pumped hydro is viable already have it. The growth potential is limited.

Hydrogen is a more interesting option. Not necessarily for energy storage, but as a fuel for use cases where electricity can't be used (like fertilizer or methanol rather than cars or heating).

Have you been living under a rock? There already is war in Europe. Ignoring Hitler didn't end well for Europe, and Putin won't be any different.

>What we do know is that ev sales have taken a dive.

EV sales are in fact growing in all major regions in the world:

https://www.iea.org/data-and-statistics/charts/quarterly-ele...

However, what we do know is the transition being existential for some actors - and even countries. If Russian propaganda about Ukraine is bad, EVs are much worse, since they are actually an existential threat.

The Minsk agreements happened after the Budapest Memorandum was violated. If the latter was upheld, the former wouldn't exist.

While true, Germany's absurd electricity-to-gas price ratio makes electrification an uphill battle:

https://www.ehpa.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Additional-s...

It's quite ironic how you wrote exactly the opposite regarding Palestine in another thread:

>Gaza is just a region of Palestine. Palestine is an occupied territory. A fast and enduring solution to the conflict is that Israel ceases its military and civilian occupation of Palestine and withdraws to its internationally recognized borders: those of pre-1967. Period.

>EU citizens haven't been brainwashed into thinking that their government is their enemy, at least not to the same extent as the US.

The same phenomenon can be seen in other areas, such as digital cash:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=Dpu6G_UlSdM

On paper, digital cash is superior to both physical cash and digital bank money in almost all aspects, but many Americans oppose it anyway because they see their government as their enemy.

A good start would be to have the same tax on electricity and gas. It's absurd that gas is heavily subsidized in most of Europe:

https://www.euractiv.com/section/energy/news/eus-energy-taxa...

Fortunately, I live in one of the few countries which don't subsidize gas (Sweden). When I visit the continent and see a gas stove, it feels like going to a museum. Induction stoves are so much better.