/jp/ - 2D/Random

The entire concept of telephone numbers and SMS texts are obsolete.

You can send voice and text over the internet. You can have unique identifiers to contact such as email addresses, accounts, or cryptographic keys.

Paying for telephone and SMS service is absurd. You are paying to use insecure communication that is easily surveilled and serves no actual real benefit to you.

Well, it's 2022 and you can't even use a bank account without a mobile telephone. Various websites, software, and services require SMS verification.

Why? Mostly because the paywall of acquiring new telephone numbers is a deterrent to making multiple accounts.

I will admit it is partially effective. But this has led to a world where you are practically required to pay for a phone number to use on a small locked down computer running spyware only because other services require it as some form of fucked up human-verification it was never meant for, and not because of any actual usefulness of the outdated/insecure telephony protocols and their entire industry.