Is tipping getting out of control? Many consumers say yes

Re:Is tipping getting out of control? Many consumers say yes by dgfitz on Monday January 23, 2023 @11:33PM (#34499310)

Please correct me if I’m missing something. You’re describing a map where the key is a note and the value is, a linked list of banks? I’m not clear what the point is that you’re trying to make.

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Re:Is tipping getting out of control? Many consumers say yes by viraptor on Monday January 23, 2023 @11:46PM (#34499406)

I believe what they're saying is - we have the capability to track every physical banknote as it leaves/enters the bank and attach it to the person who deposits/withdraws it.

There may be extra steps in between, but if you're tracking a transaction / relationship type which happens twice or more, you can expect that the person on the record is the person you're after or can point you at them.

But I don't know why they expect FBI to actually have it implemented. The system would have to be so widespread/common that we'd know if it existed. I mean, there's https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Currency_bill_tracking but that's for hobbyists. Otherwise banks may check for duplicate numbers... but I can't find any mention of more widespread tracking.

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Re:Is tipping getting out of control? Many consumers say yes by freejazz on Tuesday January 24, 2023 @12:08AM (#34499569)

It also assumes that money doesn't change hands multiple times before going back into another bank.

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Re:Is tipping getting out of control? Many consumers say yes by ilyt on Tuesday January 24, 2023 @01:12AM (#34500028)

You could probably infer a lot without knowing who traded it to who.

If say

* person A gets 100 banknotes from the bank, gives 50 to person B,

* person B pays 25 to person C and 5 back to bank (say, taxes)

* person C pays 5 of them to the bank

You can infer with some probability who traded what to who.

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Re:Is tipping getting out of control? Many consumers say yes by freejazz on Tuesday January 24, 2023 @02:31AM (#34500568)

Not really. A billion other things also could have happened, they just didn't. Also, when was the last time you deposited cash?

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Re:Is tipping getting out of control? Many consumers say yes by kelnos on Tuesday January 24, 2023 @03:41AM (#34501112)

Many people don't, but businesses deposit excess cash daily.

Certainly, though, those same businesses keep a lot of cash in order to give change to other customers. But that cash will still likely end up back at a bank before too long.

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Re:Is tipping getting out of control? Many consumers say yes by freejazz on Tuesday January 24, 2023 @10:46AM (#34505030)

If it only goes to banks when businesses deposit it, you can't tell anything about the intermediary users

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Re:Is tipping getting out of control? Many consumers say yes by ilyt on Tuesday January 24, 2023 @09:56PM (#34513814)

Just because you can't imagine way of tracking it doesn't mean it isn't possible.

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Re:Is tipping getting out of control? Many consumers say yes by freejazz on Wednesday January 25, 2023 @12:10PM (#34520983)

Offer one...

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Re:Is tipping getting out of control? Many consumers say yes by kelnos on Tuesday January 24, 2023 @03:40AM (#34501102)

The person who made this point addressed this already:

> banknotes are only in circulation for one or two exchanges before coming back to a bank

No, you don't get the 100% whole picture, but you can mine a ton out of data points like "note 38573204 was given to John Doe via ATM on 2023-01-10, and returned to bank by Jane Smith (owner of ABC Widgets) on 2023-01-14".

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Re:Is tipping getting out of control? Many consumers say yes by freejazz on Wednesday January 25, 2023 @06:34PM (#34525720)

Not really. Coincidentally, there is no database of that. Hmm, wonder why!

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