UK phase out paper money for polymers . Crypto makes this temporary

The UK starts to phase out paper money for polymers as they are cheaper as they last longer and environmentally friendly

http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/photos/confirmed-polymer-banknotes-coming-to-uk-slideshow/sample-polymer-five-ten-gb-photo-141632237.html

This was probably planned before crypto currencies were known to work so well and this exercise will now be less useful or money saving than adopting national crypto's.

Cash transaction are already declining fast and crypto's are definitely the future

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/consumertips/banking/7585891/Cash-to-be-used-in-fewer-than-half-transactions-by-2015.html

Last year 59 per cent of the 37 billion transactions were done with cash, a sharp decline from the 73 per cent of transactions that were made with cash just 10 years ago.

According to the Payments Council, a trade body representing the banks, card and cash machine industry, this proportion will fall to below 50 per cent by 2015, and to 45 per cent by 2018.

Those figures may well be conservative now.

Bitcoin has jumped a level of progression and tech advancement in payment systems.

From March 2012 FT

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/63a21dcc-6f68-11e1-9c57-00144feab49a.html#axzz2ntvNlhaZ

A number of countries – including Turkey, Sweden, Estonia, the Philippines, South Korea and Japan – have started to discuss ending the use of cash all together. One of the most prominent campaigns has been in Sweden, where the anti-cash lobby group has high-profile support from Abba’s Björn Ulvaeus, co-writer of pop hits including “Money, Money, Money”.