EU ramps up war on cash

[Mometaskers]

Well digital fiat is really to the government's advantage since all your money would be in the bank and the government can keep track of it. If your account is frozen for some reason, then you're screwed. Hopefully by the time this happen Bitcoin is already widely adopted and transaction time would be tolerable enough for some small purchases. With digital fiat the norm (or rather the only system other than cryptos) you either use bitcoin or your country's currency even for the littlest stuff. It would always be better to have a failsafe.

[c789]

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-02-10/cash-no-longer-king-europe-accelerates-move-begin-elimination-paper-money

If you live in the EU, find out if your elected politician supports this or not. If they do, or if they are ambivalent, vote them out. If they tell you that this is needed to fight terrorism, they are either lying or are ignorant...all the more reason to vote them out. Wars and wars on terrorism have been fought for centuries without removing cash.

This is a frontal assault on freedom.

It doesn't matter what you vote, there is a global plan to ban cash. This cannot be stopped, cash will not exist anywhere in the world in the next 20 to 40 years or so, it will be a thing of the past.

We can't depend on politicians, only on ourselves, if we want financial freedom. That means, a strong decentralized bitcoin will be our savior, nothing else.

I'm not so sure about that. A year ago, nobody would have thought that Trump, LePen, Wilders, and Brexit would happen. They all have one thing in common: a populist demand for politicians to obey the people. I'm not saying that the fight to stop the ban on cash will be easy, but we've seen that populist movements can be successful. Aside from religion, I can't think of something that could and should cause a stronger backlash against government overreach than interfering with people's money.

[jackg]

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-02-10/cash-no-longer-king-europe-accelerates-move-begin-elimination-paper-money

If you live in the EU, find out if your elected politician supports this or not. If they do, or if they are ambivalent, vote them out. If they tell you that this is needed to fight terrorism, they are either lying or are ignorant...all the more reason to vote them out. Wars and wars on terrorism have been fought for centuries without removing cash.

This is a frontal assault on freedom.

It doesn't matter what you vote, there is a global plan to ban cash. This cannot be stopped, cash will not exist anywhere in the world in the next 20 to 40 years or so, it will be a thing of the past.

We can't depend on politicians, only on ourselves, if we want financial freedom. That means, a strong decentralized bitcoin will be our savior, nothing else.

I'm not so sure about that. A year ago, nobody would have thought that Trump, LePen, Wilders, and Brexit would happen. They all have one thing in common: a populist demand for politicians to obey the people. I'm not saying that the fight to stop the ban on cash will be easy, but we've seen that populist movements can be successful. Aside from religion, I can't think of something that could and should cause a stronger backlash against government overreach than interfering with people's money.

How did you find out about the site in the OP? There has been no mention in my country of bans that france and spain have made about withdrawing certain amounts of cash. Doesn't this increase the value of Bitcoin though in a positive way? Not sure the uk will accept that idea anyway (although it might help the banks to function - but not to get customers or copanies to agree (though they have suprised us before)).

[c789]

How did you find out about the site in the OP? There has been no mention in my country of bans that france and spain have made about withdrawing certain amounts of cash. Doesn't this increase the value of Bitcoin though in a positive way? Not sure the uk will accept that idea anyway (although it might help the banks to function - but not to get customers or copanies to agree (though they have suprised us before)).

I regularly check out zerohedge because they have stories that the mainstream media refuses to talk about, or if they do talk about it, it's on a link way down on the page, almost not noticeable. Many people didn't know about India or Greece's cash ban/restrictions either since the mainstream media didn't give it much press.

[d5000]

In Germany (and other countries where people value privacy more highly) I don't think there is any chance poiticians could ban cash - these people wouldn't get voted never again. And if the EU would impose it, then they would vote EU-skeptical parties and the EU would risk to lose one of its strongest members.

I don't know how it's in Sweden and France (if I remember right they have the most restrictive cash laws) but I consider it also unprobably there will be a complete ban there. I don't think their culture differs that much from the German one for their people to accept a complete ban.

[Sithara007]

Well digital fiat is really to the government's advantage since all your money would be in the bank and the government can keep track of it. If your account is frozen for some reason, then you're screwed. Hopefully by the time this happen Bitcoin is already widely adopted and transaction time would be tolerable enough for some small purchases. With digital fiat the norm (or rather the only system other than cryptos) you either use bitcoin or your country's currency even for the littlest stuff. It would always be better to have a failsafe.

This is a major issue. If the money is stored in the digital form, then it is extremely difficult to prevent any account seizing or haircut from the banks / government. Perhaps that is the main intention behind this move.

[jackg]

Well digital fiat is really to the government's advantage since all your money would be in the bank and the government can keep track of it. If your account is frozen for some reason, then you're screwed. Hopefully by the time this happen Bitcoin is already widely adopted and transaction time would be tolerable enough for some small purchases. With digital fiat the norm (or rather the only system other than cryptos) you either use bitcoin or your country's currency even for the littlest stuff. It would always be better to have a failsafe.

This is a major issue. If the money is stored in the digital form, then it is extremely difficult to prevent any account seizing or haircut from the banks / government. Perhaps that is the main intention behind this move.

If this actually happens, won't people just use things like gold instead or other valuable items in order to exchange faster and without government control.
There is also bitcoin and other currencies that could be ued instead. If the uro becomes digitalised, people may start using USD instead in order to have money that isn't government controlled?

[LeGaulois]

Every thing published on Zero Hedge needs to be considered with a grain of salt. There are lot of garbages posted there.
And if you listen them, every next week, the market will crash, every week it is the financial apocalypse. I no longer visit this site, nor i believe or consider every story that is published. Follow them 1 month and at the end they will have successfully washed your brain and you will live like a survivalist and a bit of paranoia

[Pab]

EU limited cash transactions,like a excuse thay use word tetrorsm.What is behind decsion .Big crisis in EU banking system,Uni Credito italian giant has just reported 13bln of loses,yet another Spenish gian bank 3bln euro of loses,inflation is coming.There is 4 years high inflation in Germany,true is in that flood of printed money there is no money,but people are using cash and thay want to use cash,becouse people dont trust banks anymore

[Vaccinus]

I pose this question: will Bitcoin or the Euro be more important in 10 years?

Bitcoin. The EU is on its last legs.

and why we are discussing this? for us bitcoiners the cash are not important, we are going to use a new technology and it's only digitally, why we should care about it? terrorist is always brought as an excuse for bitcoin also to refrain the adoption

[VTCutch]

A lot of people here are complaining about different disadvantages of electronic/digital cash, such as lack of privacy and risk of hacking. But all of you are ignoring another important thing. Transactions in physical cash is free, while those using digital cash involves a transaction fee to the bank.

You're right. In addition, the transactions with cash are free, they are also anonymous. It is hard to see to it exactly where you spend your cash

[Kprawn]

Cash is the last thing standing in the way of complete governmental control over private finance. The powers behind this wants to control all

information and that includes information on every single transaction that are made on this planet. Once they control people's finances, they

control their livelihood.  We should never allow this to happen... not even to substitute cash completely with Bitcoin. 

[c789]

Every thing published on Zero Hedge needs to be considered with a grain of salt. There are lot of garbages posted there.
And if you listen them, every next week, the market will crash, every week it is the financial apocalypse. I no longer visit this site, nor i believe or consider every story that is published. Follow them 1 month and at the end they will have successfully washed your brain and you will live like a survivalist and a bit of paranoia

Every news org needs to be scrutinized. All of them have an agenda. But as for the war on cash, it's true. Look at India, France, and Greece. And then there's Cyprus. Even in the US the idea has been voiced several times in govt to do away with the $100 bill. So, it's not paranoia. It's happening already. It's still at the point where the populace can get their politicians to fear them on this to not let it spread.

[Hydrogen]

Monopolies are bad. They repress innovation, hinder progress and stagnate society.

Eliminating cash would give banks a monopoly over the exchange (and possible distribution) of currency.

Banks having a monopoly -- complete control over currency, would lead to banks abusing this power & the world would become a much worse place to live.

[botany]

Monopolies are bad. They repress innovation, hinder progress and stagnate society.
Eliminating cash would give banks a monopoly over the exchange (and possible distribution) of currency.
Banks having a monopoly -- complete control over currency, would lead to banks abusing this power & the world would become a much worse place to live.

It is not the banks that I would directly worry about. It is what the governments can do through the banks.
Government policies are no longer stable/predictable these days.

[Hydrogen]

It is not the banks that I would directly worry about. It is what the governments can do through the banks.
Government policies are no longer stable/predictable these days.

After the economic meltdown of 2008, when the TARP bank bailout bill was being drawn up by Chris Dodd. The process was defined by Chris Dodd asking banks what they wanted in the bank bailout bill and banks essentially getting whatever terms they asked for. It might be accurate to say banks control the government and wield a ridiculous amount of political clout. Banks want to outlaw money to give themselves a larger monopoly over currency exchange.

Banks having a monopoly over money is bad for everyone except banks. If the EU passes legislation which outlaws money it shows that banks are the ones in control, they're the ones running things behind the scenes telling government which laws to pass.