EDITORIAL - Glitches will happen

Just recently, thousands of users of an e-wallet application were alarmed after the app sent their money to numbers they didn’t recognize or made transactions they didn’t authorize.

Among many, one user complained that ?85,000 in her e-wallet was sent to 30 numbers that were unknown to her.

This problem has since been solved, with the company that manages the app saying that all e-cash has been returned to their rightful owners. But this hasn’t stopped the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas from looking into the incident; it's expected to complete its investigation by the middle of this month.

The e-wallet is an aspect of financial technology that many of us have come to be dependent on. There is no question about the convenience it brings; people don’t have to bring cash money with them wherever they go. They no longer have to carry coins that accumulate weight or bills that take up space in the wallet or, worse, attract unwanted attention from thieves or robbers. With this we can pay for almost anything in lieu of said cash money or in case we don’t have enough of it.

It has become so prevalent and convenient that even some ambulant vendors now offer e-wallet options for their customers.

However, as with any form of technology, it isn’t without its faults and is also bound to fail every now and then, like what happened recently. We don’t fault the app or the company that owns it. No machine, system, or technology is 100% immune from breakdowns, glitches, or downtime. Even a computer code, which consists of numbers and symbols, can fail.

So what can we learn from this? It would be best to not have all our eggs in one basket. To always have backup cash money with us wherever we go. Or, simplified further and broken down to basics, just be prepared for when even the most trusted of technologies, or the things you use and rely on every day, fail.