In 2024, USA will reach the current present in Europe ;)
Since 2017, the SEPA Instant Credit Transfer protocol is enabled in Europe. Which is basically what FedNow will be.
Multiple apps and banks have built on top of it solutions for consumers and businesses.
I interviewed Bizum, the success story of Spain related to instant payments. Here, "bizum" is a verb. 100% of banks supoort it. Everyone, kids and adults, use it to pay for beers, food or presents https://www.javierescribano.me/bizum/
In the Czech Republic all major banks support instant transfers AFAIK, but not sure what's the situation for EU transfers, when I send money to Degiro (stock broker) it's not instant.
Also, I almost stopped using cash and just use my phone everywhere.
> What at first began as peaceful mass demonstrations has sparked sporadic violence, with protestors setting fire to buildings and damaging property
As engineers, we should be more careful about the consequences of what we build. It can be used for the good, or for the bad. What will those engineers think when there is first dead person (either violent protester, pacific protester or policeman)? Will they feel responsible?
Pacific protests are allowed every day. Violent protests with people setting fire to cars, bins, etc; and people throwing rocks or acid to the police must be prosecuted.
While I totally agree with the idea that we, as engineers, are responsible for the things we build, I think your exposition here ("we have seen violent protests + a group making apps to organize protests => we should be careful") can be a bit misleading or suggest links between this group and the violent actions, which wouldn't be well grounded based on what we know so far.
Without assuming that was your intent, but to add some context: this group (tsunami democratic) is explicitly advocating for nonviolence. At least ~2.4M people voted (2017) for parties that oppose the sentence that lead up to the current protests. We are seeing ~1000 violent protesters, which should be fairly compared to the ~0.5M people who are steadily mobilised on pacific protests.
Given the context, I believe that the terrorism charges that some politicians and judges are attempting to attribute to groups like this (this is the reason the websites have been shut down in Spain) are far more dangerous and can backslash in more violence than any of the apps or websites some activists can possibly create.
And the consequences of what we don't build. Are you willing to withhold people's ability to protest, because sometimes protests turn violent? You can always increase safety by taking away freedom, until everyone is forced to wear surveillance shock collars.
Through the use of technology, corporations and governments grow more powerful every day - it is extremely dangerous to not balance that power. Look at China - their people will have a very difficult time digging themselves out of that hole. That's where your logic leads.
> You can see them in the front line, looking for melee with the police. They are covered, some wear helmets and elbow pads, communicate by radio and do not get rid of almost anything. They are the 500 anti-systems, which the police divide between revolutionary independence activists and anarchists, mostly young people, who are at the forefront of the riots that have had their epicenter in Barcelona since Monday. This nucleus has a reinforcement of another 1,500 that add to the altercations.
Unfortunately, in Spain they are not, thanks to the infamous "Gag Law". You first need permission to protest anywhere and you're not allowed to protest near Spanish institutions at all. Fines range between €30,000 and €600,000 if guilty, which is way above what anyone who actually protests could pay.
Arguments like this completely ignore that the police and government have their own secure channels they use in these situations, and are prone to frequently inciting violence. Why should an engineer feel bad for leveling the playing field between people who feel oppressed and their oppressors?
Disclaimer: I'm from Madrid and I live in Madrid right now. I've created 3 startups. I've spent monts or weeks working from San Francisco, New York, London and Barcelona. My companies have been invested by Atomico, Idinvest, PointNine, 500 Startups
Many people ask me why I haven't moved permanently elsewhere. The answer is simple: quality of live. It's really hard to get the quality of life that we have in Spain (free health care, awesome food, awesome weather, lots and lots of places to visit on the weekends, awesome hiking places, beaches, mountains to sky, etc). Specially if you have a high salary like us in tech do.
About Madrid and Barcelona. I think both are good choices, but let me summarize some thoughts:
- Barcelona. It has a beach and the sea; if you are really into it, it's a great choice. It's near France, so it's great to rent a car and travel to Europe (France, Italy). The city is lovely although there are way too many tourists now (you will avoid many areas). It had an ecosystem much bigger than Madrid, but right now it's not anymore. The design community is bigger there. There are more international people living there for 1-2 years, but they usually leave.
- Madrid. The bigger companies are here (Amazon has tons of good paying jobs, Google, Facebook). If you avoid Puerta del Sol, the rest of areas are very calm. It has high-speed trains with all over Spain, it's the best spot if you want to travel. The startup ecosystem has grown a lot, Google opened a Campus there (like in London). There are many accelerators in Madrid. And many of us who sold previous companies are already into our 2-3 companies. Wages are higher and the cost is kind of similar now (what they told me in Barcelona two weeks ago). Madrid has more events than in Barcelona.
About the work. If you work in Tech, Spanish won't be a problem neither in Madrid nor Barcelona. In both places you may want to learn some Spanish & Catalan words to communicate better, but the situation is improving a lot (there are thousands of American & British teachers in our schools).
Salaries? Lower than in UK and Germany. But the top companies are paying much more than traditional companies. Let's say that the idea is that you save the same money. A Senior dev can get paid between 40 and 60k in Madrid in one of the top startups + stock options.
Don't do freelancing with local clients. If you are into remote, that's the best way to save money. Remote for a US client and work from Spain.
If you are searching for a startup and Madrid is finally a good option for you, check ours https://ontruck.com/work-with-us/. We are around 40 employees, we have grown a lot (€) in one year and we have just been invested by Atomico and Idinvest https://techcrunch.com/2017/05/11/ontruck/. Our focus is Europe.
This is for health insurance, your taxes and also for your retirement pension. Being autonomo is a handicap, this is true, but you are your own boss, choose your working hours, clothes etc as you want, stop working "when you want" and are supposedly paid for extra hours, so not all is bad after all.
I am a Spanish "autonomo" living in Germany: healthcare is way more expensive here in Germany (and in many ways lower quality). I see Spanish freelancers complain a lot about how expensive healthcare is for them, but when you compare it with the rest of Europe/USA, it is quite cheap I'd say.
I already had it in my mind. I did El Camino el Santiago last year, and I want to travel abroad this time (I'm Spaniard). Did you do the full way or just some weeks? Do you remember any good website/guides to prepare it? Any way of contacting you?
I walked it this year and found http://www.shikokuhenrotrail.com/ is a great site for information, particularly about the individual temples. It has a forum as well where you can ask questions.
It took me 50 days but I did 20 extra temples and had a few diversions (some intentional, some not).
I lived in Tokushima for a year and my advice is to make sure you avoid summer (15 June - 15 Sept) the weather is insanely hot and humid. Wikipedia says the trek should take 30-60 days so starting around April 15 might be about right.
This is going to be a long fight because traditionally those ships and its content belong to the owner. There are some international rules that some countries have agreed on (UNESCO): http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-URL_ID=13520&URL_DO=DO_TO.... Colombia hasn't signed that, but it doesn't mean they shouldn't obbey.
I don't know about this topic, so I won't add much more. However I wouldn't be so ingenous to think that the full treasure belongs to Colombia or to Spain. I suppose they will end up in international legal figths and they will end up agreeing on sharing the treasure. In any case, they CAN'T sell it (I believe) so it'd be as worthy as the tickets of the museum. It's more of a patriotic fight than a practical fight.
It's not so surprising to me. When you have stomach ache, the first thing they tell you is not to eat until you have been cleansed. We have always done that in my family. Also, once that I had a weird allergy on my skin (I'm not allergic to anything) I fasted for 4 days drinking Aquarius and some ham and rice the last 2 days. I didn't need any pills.
There is a Spanish Uber competitor called Cabify that does comply with the law. They have professional drivers and cool and clean cars. So yes, Uber could be legal if they want (it implies more effort though as every driver has to have a license)
Since 2017, the SEPA Instant Credit Transfer protocol is enabled in Europe. Which is basically what FedNow will be.
Multiple apps and banks have built on top of it solutions for consumers and businesses.
I interviewed Bizum, the success story of Spain related to instant payments. Here, "bizum" is a verb. 100% of banks supoort it. Everyone, kids and adults, use it to pay for beers, food or presents https://www.javierescribano.me/bizum/