Thread

1. autoexec · 1790188120 · focus · HN ↗

   > Defence Secretary Wes Streeting said daily lives depend on satellites that power everyday technologies like mobile phones and banking apps, adding the loss of GPS would cost the UK economy £1.4bn a day.

   Oh no! Not our precious banking apps! What a weird thing to call out specifically. It's also kind of strange to talk at such length about how critical satellites have become to people's lives, national economy, emergency services, and people's "daily freedoms", only to conclude with "So now we're using ground-based systems to take out the satellites other countries depend on for all of those things"

   1. tene80i · 1790188379 · focus · HN ↗

      Why is it strange? Millions of people use banking apps daily to make transactions essential to their lives and businesses.

      1. boredatoms · 1790188468 · focus · HN ↗

         Why does a banking app require GPS?

         1. GJim · 1790243563 · focus · HN ↗

            > Why does a banking app require GPS?

            The networks (including physical IP networking) that underpin banking require a very accurate source of time to function. This is frequently farmed out to GPS, rather than use local atomic clocks. This makes GPS (or rather GNSS) a single point of failure.

            I'm surprised so few people on HN appear to be aware of this.

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