I’d rather see something where the algorithm is open and pieces of it are voted on by the users and other interested parties. Perhaps let people create and curate their own algorithm’s, something like playlist curation on spotify or youtube but make it as transparent as possible, let people share them and such. Kind of like how playlists are shared.

Isn’t that already how it works, sans the transparency part?

You press “like” on something you like, and the algorithm shows you more that are related to that thing you just liked. Indirectly, you’re curating your feed/algorithm. Or maybe you can look at this from another angle, maybe the “like” button isn’t just for the things you like, but also the things that you don’t particularity like, but would like to see more.

Then there’s other people around you, your Facebook friends, their likes also affect your feed, as you can see the algorithm suggests things that “people that are interested in things you’re interested in, are also interested in”.

You’d be surprised

I don’t think so. These are heavily regulated and that’s why Google Pay/Apple Pay is still not available in all countries after so many years.

So unless your bank allows that, which I doubt they’ll, Google Pay is probably the only way to do contactless payment the traditional way.

Unless your country/city has a widely accepted third party payment system that doesn’t go through the bank, like a digital wallet that you’ll have to top up its credit, then maybe.