Mark Andrews wrote:
but we do have the tech to do this.
I wholeheartedly agree.
All it takes is a couple of transit providers to no longer accept word-of-mouth and the world will transition overnight.
This is the hard part. It seems trivial - being probably only a handful of transit providers - but then again, these providers have massive infrastructure spread globally, often ancient legacy systems that still work, and management has a legal responsibility in most places to maximize the profits of their shareholders. Look at the rollout of EMV in the U.S.: the world "has done had that tech to do that" for decades (in Europe) but it only arrived in the U.S. two years ago. And the U.S. doesn't do the (more secure) chip-and-pin like the rest of the world (that costs too much money according to the banks) but rather chip-and-signature. Whereas U.S. banks are (sometimes) liable for fraud on their systems, transit providers don't have any liability for anything in the U.S. And they are actively fighting for their right to transit some packets faster than others - for an additional fee, of course! I think the solution is legislation + regulations. -- Regards, S.C.