
Ask HN: Digital paper money? - hacalox
Is there any way we can use a debit card the same way we use paper money?
I can use paper money without having a bank account, but I feel like there is no way I can use a debit card without having a bank account.<p>Is there anyone here who feels that digital money and paper money should have the same benefits?<p>I don&#x27;t like banks. I don&#x27;t like how they multiply money out of nothing. I don&#x27;t like how they operate.I don&#x27;t want my money to be borrowed to others nor being invested in financial products I don&#x27;t know.
I don&#x27;t want to lose my money if they fail as a company while investing my money.<p>Is there anyone out there feeling like this? Have you found any solutions to this problem?<p>Edit: Debit card instead of credit card
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vitovito
I think this is what's known as a "stored value card," whether it's like a
traditional gift card with a number and signature stored on a magnetic strip,
or a smart card-based system, where a tamper-resistant cryptographic chip
(just like the one in your SIM card) stores and manages a value on it.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stored-
value_card](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stored-value_card)

[https://www.fiscal.treasury.gov/fsservices/gov/pmt/storedVal...](https://www.fiscal.treasury.gov/fsservices/gov/pmt/storedValue/storedValue_home.htm)

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DanBC
> I don't like banks. I don't like how they multiply money out of nothing. I
> don't like how they operate.I don't want my money to be borrowed to others
> nor being invested in financial products I don't know. I don't want to lose
> my money if they fail as a company while investing my money.

Some religions don't allow interest to be earnt on loans. You might be
interested in their financial products.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_banking_and_finance](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_banking_and_finance)

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hacalox
Thank you for your comment, very much appreciate it as I didn't know any of
the Islamic banking finance system. But that's now what I'm worried about.

I don't want a loan. I want my digital money to have the same qualities that
physical money has. I'm looking for a place I feel comfortable giving them my
money without having to worry about if they loose my money or not while
investing it nor deleting me from their db. I don't want them to track my info
neither. Just a place where I bring them my money, they save it and they give
me access to that money with a debit card.I would pay 10$ a month to have
digital money, or something similar to what I describe.

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Cozumel
If you want to use a 'credit' card then that means your spending money you
don't have, so you're spending the banks money, that's why you need a bank
account, sort of simple but that's the idea.

A 'debit' card is money you do have, and you don't need a bank account for
some of those, for example you can get 'pre-paid' cards, you top them up with
paper money then spend them wherever.

There's also bitcoins and all the other digital currencies you can use, I
think some places even have Bitcoin ATMS now.

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hacalox
You are right, thank you for the correction. Post edited. The problem with
prepaid cards is that I don't feel like my money is secure neither. What if
visa fails? What happens to my prepaid card if visa/master card fails?

Don't you feel like it has to exist at least one company in the globe that the
only thing it does is taking your money, secure it and give you a credit card?

What if any of these companies delete you from their db? It sounds like I'm
paranoid but I don't understand why we do trust them at all. In Spain and
Italy two big banks have failed this week.

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cjbprime
(Deleting this, guess I'm wrong.)

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hacalox
I'm not an expert and I'm really willing to learn from others in case you know
more.

Could you please elaborate more in the matter?

As far as I know, they give credits to people and they invest money to earn
more money. That's how banks make money and become profitable. And for what I
know they can even operate with more money than they really have.

By the way government just guarantees a certain amount of money, in countries
like Spain it's just 100K$/account. In other countries like Portugal I believe
it's 30K$/account.

EDIT: Responding to the government protection fact.

