Half a croissant, on a plate, with a sign in front of it saying '50c'
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Self-composting ATM receipts

 
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If anyone else is like me, they manage to build up a fairly large stack of useless ATM receipts in their wallets by the end of the month. Why do I keep requesting them? Who knows. Maybe I might need them one day?

But wouldn't it be nice if they just gradually disintegrated by themselves without leaving a trace.

grackle, May 11 2001

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       Or just drive your bookkeeper crazy like I do and throw everything...and I mean everything!....into a cardboard box under your desk. Then apologize profusely as she sorts through and promise to change your evil ways (it's a great way to get someone to organize your life and keep your bank accounts straight).
Susen, May 12 2001
  

       Hmm. RodsTiger, I'm a pretty post-paper person, but I still keep recipts, *because* they're less ephemeral than an electronic record. The whole point of a receipt is to serve as evidence if/when something goes wrong in the bank's book-keeping. Physical objects are much harder to forge than electronic objects.   

       There are ways to get similar assurances using cryptography but banks can't be bothered.
wiml, May 13 2001
  

       wiml, there really isn't anything difficult about forging receipts, it's just that the means to do it remain relatively inaccessible; security through obscurity, donchaknow. Anybody *could* fake a receipt for just about anything, right down to the missing carbon on the back of the signed master copy. It's just generally not worth the time or money.
absterge, May 14 2001
  

       This would be completly useless - what if you needed to keep the receipts - they would disintegrate as well.   

       My thought is to make it harder to get a receipt - make "No Receipt" the default and make the user SPECIALLY ask for a receipt if they want one. What do you need a receipt for anyway? 95% of them get thrown away within 10 seconds. Mostly on the floor. What a waste. They should just scrap receipts from ATMs. (Note: IN UK we also have an option for "Mini-Statements", where ATM's will print a cut down version of a statement showing last 10 transactions - this is actually usefull, as you can see your statement days before it arrives in the post.)
CasaLoco, May 14 2001
  

       Wouldn't you end up with a wallet full of dirt? They can't just disintegrate into nothing. Unless they turn into gas or energy, then your wallet wouldn't get dirty. Just gassy or hot.
PotatoStew, May 14 2001
  
      
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