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Walt: private alternative to Google Pay or Apple Pay (walt.is)

submitted 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) by unglueclass23@programming.dev to c/buyeuropean@feddit.uk

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Found it interesting, something worth keeping an eye on. Hasn’t released yet, planned date end of 2026.

Based in Copenhagen, I think.

The founder did answer some questions on reddit (user ColeFromWalt)

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[-] Alvaro 9 points 2 days ago

Credit cards were a terrible mistake. digitizing money is a good idea but how did we go from cash (mostly anonymous and peer to peer) to credit cards (completely centralized, identity based, monetized for-profit platform)

I hope one day to see governments make a jump to crypto and save us all from this shit (no, not btc or shitcoins)

[-] Humanius@lemmy.world 11 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

You lament the loss of anonymity (and presumably privacy) but then you wish for governments to adopt cryptocurrencies. That does not track.

Crypto is neither anonymous nor private. Every transaction is written to a public ledger that anyone can see. You can easily track each transaction a crypto-wallet makes, and with a bit of effort it is usually not difficult to match a wallet with a person.

Crypto is less private than the traditional banking system. At least with banks your transactions can only be reviewed internally.

[-] TranquilTurbulence@lemmy.zip 4 points 1 day ago

As far as I know, a blockchain solves a very specific kind of problem you never hear people lamenting about: trust. If you can’t trust your bank or the local shop, and those two can’t trust each other, let alone you, that’s when you need a blockchain. This tool is for situations where everyone is constantly worried about someone else screwing you over and running away with your money.

If there is sufficient trust among all three parties, you don’t need a blockchain. It solves a problem you don’t have.

[-] wewbull@feddit.uk 6 points 2 days ago

I think we're better going back to cash.

I don't think it's a coincidence that the high rates of inflation, especially on food and other groceries that don't really seem to be reflected in headline rates, happened around the same time that we went cashless. It's enabled people to ignore how the numbers went up,

There's something about handling over cash that makes you feel the price you're paying.

[-] swelter_spark@reddthat.com 1 points 12 hours ago

I agree.

[-] khannie@lemmy.world 7 points 2 days ago

Crypto is neither anonymous nor private

Monero is. It's designed for that from the ground up. It's the best use case for crypto imo.

Unfortunately governments don't like it so forced all the big exchanges to stop trading it.

[-] Alvaro 4 points 2 days ago

You are mistaken. Sure, bitcoin is like that, but there are alternatives.

Monero is private and anonymous, and its not the only one.

[-] Humanius@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

I must admit I am not exactly sure on the specifics of Monero.

From a cursory Google it looks like they claim to be different from regular crypto-currencies on these fronts:

Stealth addresses for the recipient, so you can't track who receives money
Ring signatures, so you can't easily figure out who signed a transaction
Encrypted transactions, so people outside the ring cannot see the value being transferred.

That leaves me with a few questions.

Assuming that we can trust everyone in our "ring" ourselves, how does someone outside the ring verify that a person is good for the amount they are attempting to transfer? The reason why in regular crypto the sender, receiver and amount are public, is so that anyone can verify that noone is spending more than they have. That is necessary in lieu of a central authority verifying transactions.

I take it that as outsiders we just have to assume that the "ring" is credible, and has verified the transaction for us.
That leads me to my next question. How can we trust the ring? What is preventing a small group of people banding together and forming their own ring, approving each others fraudulent transactions? It seemingly lowers the bar for a 51% attack quite significantly.

Any website I found also talks about stealth addresses for recipients, but how does the money then make it to the actual recipient? At some point the address of the actual recipient has to be made public in order for the funds to actually go where they are supposed to go.

And if there are only stealth addresses for recipients, does that mean there are no stealth addresses for senders? Can anyone still see if I'm making transactions, just not how much and to whom?

I'm currently at work, so admittedly I haven't taken a particularly deep dive on the topic, but these are just some concerns that came to mind based on the information I found following a quick Google.

[-] Natanael@infosec.pub 1 points 18 hours ago

Look up techniques like cryptographic range proofs and Zero-knowledge proofs. It's all doable without trust, assuming you believe the algorithms are secure

[-] Cyber@feddit.uk 1 points 2 days ago

how did we go from cash [...] to credit cards Consumerism convenience, that's all.

If the vast majority of people saw value in cash (or privacy), there wouldn't be as much adoption of cards (or the subject matter: phone payments)

this post was submitted on 04 May 2026

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