Introduction:The topic of online stores has become highly prominent. The state chose to invest in promoting them by introducing Ordinance No. H-18.
It is difficult to speak of regulation in relation to internet-based businesses, and indeed the online industry as a whole. The diversity is such that there is hardly a single universal standard.
In principle, any regulation tends to look like a spoke in the wheel. And one more allegory: if you are not a skilled archer and you draw the bowstring, the arrow may rebound in an unpredictable direction.
Although rather clumsy in its original version, Ordinance No. 18 prompts us to reflect on the direction of development. Until now, that direction had been “outwards”, that is, from the physical world, “what can be touched”, towards internet platforms. In other words, a virtual space was being created because the real one had become too limited.
Within this virtual space, real processes have long been evolving. The pursuit of speed and the impatience of the new generation have shifted a vast share of time-consuming activities there. From buying and selling almost anything, to building momentum for social movements, to collecting donations for affected regions, paying tax, electricity and water bills, booking consultation appointments, and much else besides. Yes, even managing drip irrigation online while we are in the Maldives.
The world became broader, people straightened their shoulders and fixed their gaze ... on screens. The horizon expanded within this larger space.
With H-18, philosophically speaking, an attempt is being made to reverse the process: to project the virtual onto the physical. This is where the problem of one-to-one correspondence arises. The whole exercise begins to resemble the actions of an elephant in a china shop. Another allegory: a small child trying to stuff a bath sponge into a walnut shell while his mother splashes water over him. Either the walnut needs to be a coconut, or the sponge needs to be a small ball.
These are the kinds of thoughts that began to emerge when we decided to speak about the history of credit cards. Let us come to the point!
To the eternal philosophical question of what comes first – the material or the spiritual – in the context of our present age, there is an answer: technology. It drives the development of humanity and shapes both daily life and consciousness. Of course, we are saying this in an era of transformation.
Official section:
Today we are going to talk about the credit card: one of the conveniences technology has given us. For our ancestors, payment by credit card, cashless transactions, or paying for material acquisitions without having sufficient means – even if those means were flints – would have seemed like science fiction. A credit card is a type of agreement under which we can use funds in advance and repeatedly, and settle them afterwards.
Historically, the first credit cards appeared in the middle of the twentieth century. This happened thanks to another innovation – the automobile. Credit cards for drivers were a genuine revolution. For oil companies, they were a way of securing customer loyalty. Customers could pay “on credit” for frequent purchases: fuel, oil and other consumables. They could even pay for minor repairs.
The truth is that, even today, credit cards still serve a similar purpose – to “buy” customer loyalty. To the banks.
After the successful model in the automotive trade, there was no turning back (at least not before H-18). They were followed by major retail chains and shopping malls. American Express began issuing payment cards for people travelling on business.
Banks realised what was happening, and in 1958 Bank of America issued the first precursor to today’s credit cards. Later, when other smaller banks joined the system, this first credit card became known, for short, as Visa.
Visa became widely recognised across the world. The advantage of credit cards is that they are the most effective means of “cashless transfer of money”.
Today, it is difficult to imagine the world without credit cards. To browse and buy something from an online store immediately brings a credit card to mind. Even at the risk of a product from China arriving together with coronavirus (which is, of course, nonsense), the temptation to buy something while everyone else is asleep is very real.
Bulgarian banks offer comparatively favourable terms.
Contactless Debit MasterCard PayPass, VISA FreeCard, VISA Credit Cards, MasterCard Credit Cards, Debit Cards.
So, our original intention was to write an article along the lines of “Credit cards provide stability for the development of e-commerce”.
To be continued!
