EU, Let Me Introduce You to the Concept of Lock In. Lock In, Meet the EU.
July 7, 2026
Another dinobaby post. No AI unless it is an image. This dinobaby is not Grandma Moses, just Grandpa Arnold.
Let’s go back in time. When a bank wanted a computer in Europe in the early 1960s, whom did those savvy cats ring up? Sperry Rand, Univac, Honeywell? Answer: IBM. Why? One call did it all. Banks liked that approach. Visit a big bank today and ask to look at their computer facilities. What will you find after some poking around? Answer: Some IBM machines. That’s lock in.
Yep, lock in works. Thanks, Midjourney. Good enough.
I want to highlight this old fashioned idea in the context of “European Digital ID Wallets Are a Gift to Google and Apple.” This write up reports:
European governments are rolling out digital identity wallets, which are to be used by citizens to access services, and to verify their age online. As reported by Follow the Money and Android Authority, there is a serious problem with this: these wallets rely on safety services of Google and Apple. These are known as Google Play Integrity API, and Apple’s Managed Device Attestation. Such safety services (known as “remote attestation”) are used to ensure that wallet apps run on hardware that is not tampered with. In this article we explain why the EU-wallet case is part of a bigger problem: by embedding these safety services in public infrastructure, Europe risks making society dependent on private companies while serving their corporate interests. Here is the problem: Google’s Play Integrity API is not just a security feature: it is reinforcing Google’s control over the Android ecosystem.
Keep in mind that the EU wants to reduce its dependency on US technology. If the information in this write up is on the money, Apple and Google are in the money. There a couple of Chinese outfits willing to help the EU out. However, I assume that when one figures which big tech outfits are likely to be slightly more supportive of the Old World, the decision is easy. Hey, we love those red, white, and blue shirts and hats.
If true, this lean to the Apple and Google systems are good news. From these identity and payment acorns will grow some large invasive kudzu vines. The end game, in my opinion, is for Apple and Google to become the new financial system for the countries that are in the foxhole with US big technology companies.
Explanations of this future from these two firms will be firm. I think the companies will say, “We would never ever do that.” However, part of the freneticism of the crypto crowd is that US big tech firms will do exactly that. Once in the payment systems, the companies are going to be like that big IBM in a European bank in Switzerland. The gizmos are not going away any time soon.
Allow me to offer several observations to further disrupt your thinking about the significance of this alleged EU action:
- Apple- and Google-type outfits do not give back digital ground once it has been captured
- Apple- and Google-type outfits operate as countries and expect their decisions to be accepted, not discussed and modified by a committee of people not trusted by the leadership of these outfits
- Apple- and Google-type outfits understand that online services naturally lead to monopolistic controls; therefore, the ubiquitous mobile gizmos running these firms’ software have performed a robber baron play in full view of many informed people.
Say hello to lock in. How easy will it be to de-Apple or de-Google one’s digital life if the European digital ID wallets kick in? What’s ironic is that the beleaguered Pavel Durov of Telegram fame was correct. An alternative global financial system was a good idea. Who will give this idea some legs? Those firms are the ones to watch.
And lock in? Great stuff.
Stephen E Arnold, July 7, 2026
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