Join Reclaim The Net.

Washington-based Digital Impact Alliance (DIAL) has called for more money to be set aside for digital public infrastructure (DPI) including one of its elements, digital ID – and this means not only the funds earmarked for the technology portion of it.

Currently, DPI projects can count on $400 million by the end of the decade – that is the figure “stakeholders” have already committed to “the cause.”

Essentially, DIAL is advocating for money to be steadily spent on promotion of its mission via seemingly “trustworthy” messengers such as civil societies, academics, etc. Apparently, this would also allow their participation in governance, as well as the design and deployment of various DPIs.

Among those sitting on DIAL’s board are the director of USAI, an organization known for its involvement in setting up the digital ID in Ukraine, as well as the president and CEO of the UN Foundation, and a Gates Foundation senior adviser.

    • vector_zero@lemmy.world
      5·
      1 year ago

      As an aside, is digital ID a gating factor in us bring forced to digital currency? Stores are already refusing cash, so we’re practically digital already.

      • d0ntpan1c@lemmy.blahaj.zone
        4·
        1 year ago

        This. We already rely on digital, currently through a rather small number of payment providers who, at the end of the day, suck at privacy and security. I’m not terribly well educated on digital ID, but i generally don’t get why it is any worse than our current system (in the US, at least) of a bunch of corp run finance systems which are already very transparent to government surveillance, and care more about appeasing shareholders than security or privacy.

        Comparing visa/mastercard/discover/credit reporting/banks etc to a government based digital option, at least the government option can be beholden to voters and at least the government, as a whole, isn’t serving shareholders wants over privacy/security.

        It certainly means an authoritarian government could abuse the system more easily, but its a mistake to think that an authoritarian government can’t already abuse the current system to the same extent.

        Whether the US adopts their own stablecoin and bans/doesn’t ban other crypto, and whether this digital ID thing is the harbinger of that, it wont change what the vast majority of people reach for at the end of the day. Which, pending massive societal upheaval, will be whatever the government backs.

          • d0ntpan1c@lemmy.blahaj.zone
            2·
            1 year ago

            Thanks for the detailed response, definitely a lot to consider there.

            I think part of where I’m coming from is that i see the negative points, especially around preventing money being spent or gaining unfettered access to information, as items that are only a few laws away in event of a ultra-conservative majority, regardless of a digital ID system. With a MAGA-driven majority at some point there is not much in the way of patriot act 2: electric boogaloo, patriot act 3, 4, etc. So i tend to see the CBDC fear mongering as being distracted by the trees instead of considering the forest in total. There’s not much to be done to prevent it, but whether its mandatory or not, the bigger problem is who ends up in charge of it and especially who ends up writing the initial laws for it.

        • BearOfaTime@lemm.ee
          11·
          1 year ago

          at least the government option can be beholden to voters and at least the government, as a whole, isn’t serving shareholders wants over privacy/security.

          Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah