The simple fact of using the word “citizens” instead of people sounds awfully dystopian to me.

Me smelling the different camemberts in the aisle to find the stinkiest most ripe one to buy.

And theeeeeennnnnnnnnnnnnnnn?

Remember that there exist alternatives to the big three US payment processors.

China’s UnionPay is pretty much global now, one can open a bank account remotely in Hong Kong or Singapore and go through UnionPay.

Russia’s Mir is the answer to the current geopolitical situation and the country being cut off from SWIFT, they are backed by UnionPay and are accepted all over Asia, Africa and increasingly in Latin America, many local banks in these parts will give you a card with Mir if you request it.

India’s UPI is also gaining traction in the subcontinent, in Europe Wero is rolling out as an answer to US dependency.

You don’t have to be a prisoner to the three American processors, even in the US and Canada, UnionPay is gaining traction as a result of the demand from the Chinese diaspora and business owners.

Competition is good for business.

Edit : typo car -> card

Obviously, if the goal had been to present it as anything other than AI, the watermark wouldn’t be there.

Unfortunately, most people want a frictionless experience, they want to click the “Sign in with Google” button and never think about it again, the moment you have to register manually, even with an email and password, fetch a client from GitHub/GitLab, or worse create a wallet and understand cryptographic keys, 90+% of the population gives up.

It doesn’t mean people are stupid, humans just evolved to pick the path of least resistance when it came to foraging for food, same principle applies to modern life.