Its not really new. Wero is a rebrand of the Dutch iDeal which has been in widespread use for over a decade
Edit: After trying to find a source for that claim, Im not so sure its correct. The EPI did buy iDeal several years ago, but the text I’m finding doesn’t say Wero is a rebrand of iDeal outright.
iDeal will be replaced by Wero (either the technology or the branding?) in the NL by 2027
The experiment isn’t to make weed sales legal. The experiment is to make growing weed commercially legal(-ish). The sale has been legal-ish since the 1970s already.
Technically weed is not legal, but sale, posession, and growing for personal use have been officially tolerated (gedoogbeleid) for decades. They are effectively legal in anything but name.
Growing weed for non-personal use is not tolerated. But it is tolerated that the coffeeshops which are allowed to sell weed, buys weed from these illegal growers. Its the one major hitch in our drugs policy, which many believe doesn’t make any sense.
So this experiment is meant to create a way for companies to grow weed in a way that will be officially tolerated as well. And we just reached the next stage of that experiment where coffeeshops in the participating cities are no longer allowed to buy weed from illegal sources.
This can lead to official legalization of weed. But that would effectively not change anything in practice, compared to how things are run already.
That makes more sense. Thanks!
My guess is that they are referencing the default applications for Android Auto?
Google Automotive Services, consisting of Google Maps, Google Play and Google Assistant, is an offering enabling the use of such services in in-vehicle infotainment systems
I’m just going to point out that Spotify is Swedish.
Imo it’s already difficult enough to convince friends and family to use Signal. Delta Chat would be even more difficult to pull off.
I like to think that these videos are the only thing keeping Patrick Boyle sane from his career in finance.
His channel is great. I love his dry sense of humour.
Yeah… It’s a bit opaque, I’m not so sure anymore either.
https://nl.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/IDEAL
The Dutch Wikipedia page says that iDeal was bought by EPI in 2023. They then launched Wero in 2024, and eventually iDeal will be renamed to Wero (Note it says renamed and not replaced)
Maybe they rebranded it? Maybe they reused the technology? I’m not quite sure if and what the relation is.
Edit: This blog post from 2023 claims that EPI said iDeal will be used as the foundation for their (then future) payment platform Wero
https://bankblog.nl/2023/het-nederlandse-ideal-is-verkocht-en-wordt-straks-wero/