I switched to a Linux smartphone because I've had enough of the duopoly.

I also switched banks so I can use my bank card as the 2FA device, similar to CAP. [0]

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chip_Authentication_Program

What if we collectively decide to use the web alternatives for banking? We lose some convinience since they are generally desktop oriented, but they don't check who signed my kernel

I live in Thailand which is very mobile first and the main way to pay for things here is through your banking app, you scan a QR code, it fires up the app and you make a transfer.

The convenience is great but increasingly businesses now begin to offer this as the ONLY way to pay.

I keep telling people because I'm seeing it begin. This is how it happens, this is the endgame for freedom, democracy and life as you know it. Give the West 20-30 years, it will happen in some developing countries sooner.

They will require the approved app to buy and sell. Without it you will be outside the financial system, and maybe will starve.

They will require the approved app to only run on the approved operating system. You will have 2-3 options for the approved operating system but total surveillance will be a mandatory feature on all of them.

Finally, they will punish you for wrongthink when your surveilled device detects you writing or saying it.

As the world gets worse political leaders will become more authoritarian until one finally checks the last box on that list, and that's the end.

There will be no escape except for death.

All the pieces are coming into place. Every time you hear them talking about better security for XYZ you can see how it's one of the pieces on the board, being moved one square.

I don't think there is one guy who has this master plan I think it's the inevitable end state for surveillance capitalism that's as pervasive as ours.

I am an atheist, I think the Bible is all fairy tales, and yet the "Mark of the Beast" vibes I get from where the world is going are out of control. The mark on your hand or your forehead that will be required to buy or sell, that was what you'd be forced to accept once the Antichrist took over, or whatever. The 2,000 year old fairy tales were not wrong they are starting to set it up now, you carry the device in your hand, they will do it through payments and banking.

I don’t need a bank for my daily driver and I can have a backup phone. You can get fairly recent Android devices at a fraction of the cost of a new one.

And if you still can, use the website.

I also had enough. Switching to Linux pretty soon.

The alternative is older versions of Android, from before these hostile changes. The propaganda that it's "unsafe" is just that, propaganda. Perhaps Google will realise once enough of the population refuses to put on the noose.

What about GrapheneOS?

I don't do banking on my phone. I really don't understand why anyone would. If I can't get to my PC or laptop, I'm probably near an ATM. I've already given so much autonomy to Google/Alphabet/Apple, I won't give them access to my bank account.