Cashless society

[Sled]

Cashless society is possible for us but it is not that easy to implement since we are talking about society and society consists of people and that is not small number but a big number of people so it will take a lot of time and also interest from other people to make this idea come true because cashless society is a lot easier than having money in our pocket because we can transact by just our money in our smartphones.

[Dontme]

Have you ever wondered how would the world's economy be like in the future as a cashless society?

Perhaps, with the increased traction of blockchain acceptance nowadays, could lead to the creation of digital fiat currencies powered by blockchains that are managed by governments themselves. With this in mind, there would be no need for physical cash, as digital fiat currencies would provide many advantages such as quick settlement, global payments, full transparency, implants use on citizens to make payments, and more.

If this becomes a reality, which I'm sure that it will, it would radically transform our lives for the better and reduce criminal activity as a result of the full transparency and auditability that a digital fiat currency would have thanks to the power of the blockchain technology.

Also, it makes me wonder if cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin would exist by that time, or will they co-exist with digital fiat currencies.

Nevertheless, I would like to know your opinion about this. 

We are almost already in a cashless society. I can't remember the last time I went to an ATM... I use my credit card for everything and hardly ever need to use cash. Services like Venmo push us in that direction as well.

When you say there will be full transparency and auditability, what do you mean? Yeah we can see all transactions, but we can't see the people who they are between.

Maybe you are right that there are many positive effects of a cashless society but also there are many negative effects like less socialization. Imagine when you buy something without cash and just online you dont need to talk to the seller anymore and you can buy by just clicking. Unlike in cash you pay in physical money then have physical contact with the seller. Cashless society can degrade peoples personal socialization.

[itsallpc]

Have you seen Mr. Robot? You reminded me of it.
Well coming to real world, it is not possible at least for next 20 years. No matter how easy cryptocurrencies made the finance but still its scope limited to internet. We need liquid flow of internet to transfer BTC and other coins from one person to other. But if we see current situation, internet is not the bite of every individual. Lots of technical jargon stops the way of utopian society of CRYPTOCURRENCIES.

There are still lots of people who are not familiar with digital transactions.All they know is the paper money as real money which they could touch.Most of them don't even have bank accounts,credit cards,debit cards.Even in india,government tried to ban high value currencies and change people to digital transactions.But it almost failed.People just returned to their paper money transactions.It would take almost twenty to thirty years to make a cashless society.

[cafucafucafu]

Have you seen Mr. Robot? You reminded me of it.
Well coming to real world, it is not possible at least for next 20 years. No matter how easy cryptocurrencies made the finance but still its scope limited to internet. We need liquid flow of internet to transfer BTC and other coins from one person to other. But if we see current situation, internet is not the bite of every individual. Lots of technical jargon stops the way of utopian society of CRYPTOCURRENCIES.

There are still lots of people who are not familiar with digital transactions.All they know is the paper money as real money which they could touch.Most of them don't even have bank accounts,credit cards,debit cards.Even in india,government tried to ban high value currencies and change people to digital transactions.But it almost failed.People just returned to their paper money transactions.It would take almost twenty to thirty years to make a cashless society.

There are indeed a lot of people who don't know how to even operate a card.

This is largely ignored by many people, in my opinion. They assume that everyone is as smart as them and can code and all that. They don't realise that most people have no idea how to even set up a full bitcoin node. The reason why credit card companies are outracing bitcoin is not only because they are more established than bitcoin, but they are way easier than understand.

This is the reason why more accessible and easy to use software, such as Exodus wallet is so important to cryptocurrencies. Even for me, ethereum was a struggle to deal with. The wallet took like 3 days to sync properly, and i didn't know how to access my tokens. Bitcoin is significantly better, but could still improve. The more software built on the bitcoin framework the better.

[deisik]

Have you seen Mr. Robot? You reminded me of it.
Well coming to real world, it is not possible at least for next 20 years. No matter how easy cryptocurrencies made the finance but still its scope limited to internet. We need liquid flow of internet to transfer BTC and other coins from one person to other. But if we see current situation, internet is not the bite of every individual. Lots of technical jargon stops the way of utopian society of CRYPTOCURRENCIES.

There are still lots of people who are not familiar with digital transactions.All they know is the paper money as real money which they could touch.Most of them don't even have bank accounts,credit cards,debit cards.Even in india,government tried to ban high value currencies and change people to digital transactions.But it almost failed.People just returned to their paper money transactions.It would take almost twenty to thirty years to make a cashless society.

There are indeed a lot of people who don't know how to even operate a card.

This is largely ignored by many people, in my opinion. They assume that everyone is as smart as them and can code and all that. They don't realise that most people have no idea how to even set up a full bitcoin node. The reason why credit card companies are outracing bitcoin is not only because they are more established than bitcoin, but they are way easier than understand

I always disagree with this view

People don't install payment systems to their desktop computers to make payments with fiat, they use web interfaces that banks and payment processors provide. It is conceptually equal to Bitcoin web wallets, and if we compare the latter with the former, making payments with Bitcoin is in fact as easy (if not easier) than with payment cards (I'm not even talking about filling a payment order for a wire transfer). But please don't start whining about "being your own bank" and all that. With fiat, you are not your own bank either

[iamTom123]

Have you seen Mr. Robot? You reminded me of it.
Well coming to real world, it is not possible at least for next 20 years. No matter how easy cryptocurrencies made the finance but still its scope limited to internet. We need liquid flow of internet to transfer BTC and other coins from one person to other. But if we see current situation, internet is not the bite of every individual. Lots of technical jargon stops the way of utopian society of CRYPTOCURRENCIES.

We have the same view on the possibility of having a cashless society. With the introduction of credit and debit cards before, there was also this prediction that soon we can all have a truly cashless society or where people would be using the cards all the time for all the things we need.

The vision did not fully happened. Yes, there was that rise of the use of cards but it did not fully replaced the use of paper money. Now that cryptocurrency is here, we are also having the same vision. The truth is that in the real world, we still need the paper money as not all transactions can be done using the cards or the cryptos because not all people have it and the fact that there are people who prefer to do things the traditional way like the ordinary laborers and farmers we have.

[n0ne]

Cashless society is a better initiation that has been found all around the world in several countries. As a part more Countries have started to digitise their fiat and few has started to generate their own digital currency for transaction purpose. Cashless society seems successful in Countries where majority of the population is educated, because those people only prefer the card system and other advancement in financing as the rest always prefer paper money usage.

[citizenh-ssd]

Cashless society is a better initiation that has been found all around the world in several countries. As a part more Countries have started to digitise their fiat and few has started to generate their own digital currency for transaction purpose. Cashless society seems successful in Countries where majority of the population is educated, because those people only prefer the card system and other advancement in financing as the rest always prefer paper money usage.

The fact is that paper money will still be used, because it is an easy day for the population. But the state and the banking system encourages Cashless society.

[HeRetiK]

Digital fiat currencies are already in use, no blockchains needed. The use of blockchains may reduce the friction inbetween different state currencies and banks, but I honestly doubt that. It also appears like the war on cash already has started. Problem being, I'm afraid the individual citizen won't profit much from it. If anything, it will provide even more surveillance options to for governments and will only reduce minor crimes while large-scale operations will simply adjust their modus operandi. Unless, of course, we achieve full transparency, which I doubt will happen.

[alani123]

I don't think that cashless has that of a positive connotation today. It stands for POS transactions, something that's controlled by banking institutions and easily tracked and regulated by governments. I wouldn't want a cashless society to function this way. There'd still be demand for an alternative to cash for untraceable transactions.

[bit1]

I don't think that cashless has that of a positive connotation today. It stands for POS transactions, something that's controlled by banking institutions and easily tracked and regulated by governments. I wouldn't want a cashless society to function this way. There'd still be demand for an alternative to cash for untraceable transactions.

Agree, and as almost all the economy is based on that: cash, there's no point in raising that about cashless,
so cash could exist by legacy, it is useful, maybe from your comment I would only differ a little bit about untraceable transactions, I mean nobody needs to do an untraceable transactions for example to buy food or drink and even so would have demand too.

[PanGiMoon]

The key point isn't whether or not the money system is cashless, there are already attempts to introduce a cashless fiat money system. The key point is how the money is created and who is allowed to do it. And I personally doubt that most banks will give away their privilege to create money digital.

Today, a lot of transactions in the world are carried out by cashless payment. Even simple purchases in the store are already being made by bank transfer through credit cards or other bank cards. It seems that all people specifically translate this kind of calculation, so that people do not have any securities or things in their hands. About the fact that a bank card as such has no value.

[tayrey]

Neither crypto or card based payments will ever completely replace cash for the simple reason that cash works offline.

For big transactions it is possible though and already its not very practical to use cash when you buy a car or house. I think the cash denominations could decrease but will never disappear entirely.

[Tyrantt]

Neither crypto or card based payments will ever completely replace cash for the simple reason that cash works offline.

For big transactions it is possible though and already its not very practical to use cash when you buy a car or house. I think the cash denominations could decrease but will never disappear entirely.

absolutely, banks just wouldn't allow something like that and also, just as you said, bitcoin doesn't seem suited well enough (at the moment) to be handling the lower amount transactions.

[Bla2e]

Going cashless is a lot better than using cash for day to day transactions.

I reside in Mumbai (India) and from past 3 years (2014) I have gone cashless. Using plastic cards/bank transfers to pay for most of the events/transactions.

Last I remember using cash to buy coconut water from a street vendor as he did not have any means to accept cards. It was in Dec 2016 though.

Going cashless will save the cost of printing paper notes & coins. Also, it will definitely help in reducing the fake currency being circumvented in the market.

[Himanshu111]

I don't think that cashless society is possible because Bitcoin transaction charge high feels which makes its use impossible for small transactions.
Transactions via cards as well as cryptocurrencies require Internet but paper money works offline as well. Dependence on paper money can reduce but complete disappearence is not possible.

[CyberKuro]

I don't think that cashless has that of a positive connotation today. It stands for POS transactions, something that's controlled by banking institutions and easily tracked and regulated by governments. I wouldn't want a cashless society to function this way. There'd still be demand for an alternative to cash for untraceable transactions.

Agree, I don't think it could be implemented smoothly without any complain from citizens if government don't have step by step strategy to make it ordinary like fiat money transaction. However, digital fiat currency which makes it traceable isn't a good idea for many people even though govs see it as a way to prevent illegal transactions or money laundering.
Not impossible to implement cashless society, but in 50-100 years later I guess and govs should withdraw all fiat currency from circulation.

[Mazt rhiezt]

Maybe for some people who used to live without this technology is very complicated, especially for parents who take paper money in atm still need the help of others, especially if you have to transact with digital currency will be very confusing. But if seen from the aspect of Efficiency is very practical in doing the transaction, why not if one day will happen and certainly very important for the next generation.

[ilovefeetsmell]

Cashless society is happening now but not all over the world and fiat currency still exist in other countries. It might happen because we live in the technology age with the power of the internet and new innovation. It is possible to go in cashless society, they will create virtual currency to the replacement of paper money or fiat currency in their perspective country. Technology will reign in our world. No one can beat it.

[Ken1022]

Lots of great replies here and good insights.

But I'm not so sure in my opinion.

I haven't quite thought hard about it, but if the world were to have a cashless society, it would mean that the government had a large hand in it. Thus it is controlled by them to some extent. The blockchain tech is great since it has helped - or is the sole reason - Crypotcurrency has become decentralized. It's a different dynamic altogether though once fiat becomes replaced by digital currency.

Sure, allot of us can see it reduce crime, make industrial progress go allot faster, and my goodness... the sheer convenience. That's some of the pros, but almost everything has a con.

But what if you're government was corrupt? Then that would give a possible liability to this ideal or dream. So it depends on the general moral state of your country, if you as an ordinary citizen can benefit from a cashless society.