awful, a corporate enclosure of civic identity, totally unacceptable form of digital feudalism, ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Tom Crowl <[email protected]> Date: Tue, Sep 2, 2014 at 11:53 PM Subject: MasterCard-Branded National eID Card Launched in Nigeria *MasterCard-Branded National eID Card Launched in Nigeria* http://newsroom.mastercard.com/press-releases/mastercard-branded-national-ei... I do not believe the ideal is to have megabanks become the arbiters of identity. This has nothing to do with a belief that they are inherently good or bad... but rather the inherent narrowness of its purposes (benefiting management and stockholders). A user-centered, user-owned 'silo' required for a viable, one-click Internet payment capability IS the path... as is the need for a viable micropayment. Ignoring this is going to end with further consolidation of power and wealth. Its the wrong path. The user can and must be at the top of the network.... not the banks, not the phone companies. This is not a minor issue. This will limit competition in banking and currencies... and provide methods of control and enforcement to them resistant to outside limitation or oversight. (in fact this is literally giving an 'off-switch' to private interests allowing them to shut down a society at a moment's notice.) *Tom Crowl* http://CulturalEngineer.blogspot.com -- Check out the Commons Transition Plan here at: http://en.wiki.floksociety.org/w/Research_Plan P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net <http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation>Updates: http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens #82 on the (En)Rich list: http://enrichlist.org/the-complete-list/