Bitcoin Forum

Sweden is fast becoming the world’s first cashless society. Whilst many herald this as a new progressive frontier, it does bring concerns such as privacy when every transaction you make is surveilled. Bitcoin could be the answer as it brings the anonymity of the traditional cash system.

Companies make no profit from the use of cash as it lacks harvestable personal data and it has to be physically managed. The consequence is a drive for cashlessness, and Sweden is leading the way. 900 of Sweden’s 1,600 bank branches no longer store cash, and they will not accept cash deposits. There is a decrease in the number of ATMs, and the circulation of the Swedish krona fell from 106bn in 2009 to 60bn in 2016.

I don't know about Sweden telecommunication infra but what is the plan B when the system is offline?

I think that with most transactions the tradeoff between privacy and the advantages of going cashless isn't much of a big deal. They have other means of seeing what you buy, even with cash... Cash isn't completely anonymous when buying goods from a store. Anyways, a fiat cashless society seems pretty much impossible/utopia for me. I think there will always be a cash option.


Having redundant systems to handle the load from the ones that go offline while they're fixed...

But some places could not have a redundancy and others could not even have signal coverage. Some places could be so remote that even electricity is not present...