We need our infrastructure to stop treating bank account numbers and social security numbers as secrets. At least in the US, bank account numbers appear on physical checks and are required to be shared in order to do an ACH transfer, and a social security number is not supposed to be used as an identifier (unless to the Social Security Administration itself) or as a secret password.
Ideally, nothing nefarious should happen if both of them were listed and queryable publicly.
If someone has your bank account and bank’s routing number (which is also not secret), they can make fraudulent ACH transfers and payments from your account. Of course it will most likely be caught as fraud some time after the fact, but just those two bits of not-secret info are enough to grief someone.
Doesn't at all. You can take cash, keep cash and spend cash without any bank being involved. Cash is more anonymous than crypto and (if it's USD) accepted just about everywhere.
Banks give you an advantage with transaction security and deposit insurance, but that's dealing with money and not cash.
We need our infrastructure to stop treating bank account numbers and social security numbers as secrets. At least in the US, bank account numbers appear on physical checks and are required to be shared in order to do an ACH transfer, and a social security number is not supposed to be used as an identifier (unless to the Social Security Administration itself) or as a secret password.
Ideally, nothing nefarious should happen if both of them were listed and queryable publicly.
Hang on, can you actually do something nefarious with just the bank account number?
If someone has your bank account and bank’s routing number (which is also not secret), they can make fraudulent ACH transfers and payments from your account. Of course it will most likely be caught as fraud some time after the fact, but just those two bits of not-secret info are enough to grief someone.
Knuth had to stop sending real checks for errors spotted in his books because they would post pics of the check and thieves abused the account https://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/news08.html
And both numbers, plus your name and address and a convenient sample of your signature, are on every check you’ve ever written.
I suddenly feel very clever for signing everything with “Shamu T. Whale”
AFAIK that's US thing. In normal countries bank account numbers are not a secret. The worst thing that can happen is someone sending you money.
Yes but there are steep penalties for bank fraud so it is not especially common
It’s quite ridiculous that we haven’t been able to build a modern identification system capable of replacing SSNs in the last 30 years.
You all need a better system than US SSNs
You can buy your SSN for $6-$10.
Firewalled VM, locked-in keyboard/mouse, 1 query to any agent and it's setup.
... support cash, tell your neighbors
And Monero for online.
til you get debanked
Cash doesn't require a bank.
Banks are kinda useful to avoid getting robbed all your money, on a regular basis.
Many French people with crypto money experienced that the hard way recently.
do you have links about the french people?
Sure, here are a few links. Use your favourite translator.
In short, it's a very active and growing activity. Many data leaks helped people to identify wealthy targets. Some just brag about having crypto.
https://www.lemonde.fr/societe/article/2026/04/24/enlevement...
https://www.franceinfo.fr/faits-divers/cryptomonnaies-la-vag...
https://www.lemonde.fr/societe/article/2025/08/19/l-ascensio... (paywall)
https://www.slate.fr/societe/enlevements-lies-cryptomonnaies...
Some random recent ones we know about:
https://france3-regions.franceinfo.fr/grand-est/haut-rhin/mu...
https://www.leparisien.fr/faits-divers/renseignes-par-des-ha...
Kinda does?
Doesn't at all. You can take cash, keep cash and spend cash without any bank being involved. Cash is more anonymous than crypto and (if it's USD) accepted just about everywhere.
Banks give you an advantage with transaction security and deposit insurance, but that's dealing with money and not cash.