Is an economy without physical money safe for the poorest?

[Hamphser]

Imagine the situation in which we don't have any physical money and every currency is digitalized. The US dollar is now a token, the Japanese Yen is only in the network and the British pound is a fast-moving digital coin. What are the consequences of such an economy for the poorest of the population? Do you think that a few people can influence the digital wealth of people and wouldn't hackers be the best people to have as friends?

You are right that when that time comes, hackers would be the best people to have as friends. That being said, it would be bad for poor people to have a world that doesn't have physical money and all currencies being digitalized because they will need to have some kind of electronic device in order to transact, but they struggle even just to get some money to buy food to get by everyday so it will be hard for them to obtain atleast a phone or a tablet.

This is actually the reality this is why i cant think off that we would easily switch into this new way financial system on which we would really have digitalized currencies knowing off that there are people who dont have the access on the internet since they dont have any phone or pc to use on making transactions because they are busy on working just to earn small amounts for their daily living.Speaking with hackers,this would really be a real thing because it would really put you into an advantage since all things now are on electronics or digitalize.

[Pearls Before Swine]

Poor people have no money, period.  That means physical money, digital money, food,
cigarettes, all of that.  In the US if you're poor and are collecting unemployment, you
don't get a physical check anymore.  You get a debit card.  If you get food stamps, that's
all digital now as well.  So I don't think this is as big a problem as you think.  Homeless
people get benefits digitally all the time.  They don't need cold, hard cash.  None of us
does.

I still wish we weren't headed toward a cashless society.  Though it was before my time,
I miss the days when coins were silver and the USD was backed by precious metals.
Seems a quaint, antiquated notion these days, but it was useful.  I'm not an insane prepper
by any means, but money used to have intrinsic value.  That's certainly not the case
anymore.

[soham]

Imagine the situation in which we don't have any physical money and every currency is digitalized. The US dollar is now a token, the Japanese Yen is only in the network and the British pound is a fast-moving digital coin. What are the consequences of such an economy for the poorest of the population? Do you think that a few people can influence the digital wealth of people and wouldn't hackers be the best people to have as friends?

I am sure that would never happen. At least for another 30 years to come. Also even if it happens, then also the digital money will be backed up by some real physical assets like gold or fiat money. Fiat money will never be replaced by anything. But yes, the usage of fiat currency will be minimized in future. People will prefer to use their cards for every purchase. But fiat will be there to back up the digital transaction.

However, this digital movements will not be much beneficial for the poorest class and the un-educated class because they will find it difficult to understand and use in their daily lives. So a mass awareness is required before moving in to digital economy. The governments will have to ensure the availability of internet and the infrastructure to support that digital movement.

[bettercrypto]

Virtual money is actually very flexible and can be safer than physical money. But imagine you are out to buy something worth 2-3 dollars and you are paying in bitcoin or through the card you are also paying some tax with the actual amount so you are paying a bit more, it does not affect the rich but for the poor it does affect them. Another case if any natural catastrophic event occurs the internet goes down and now you have no money with you to pay for anything, so physical money is important as well. Many parts of the world don't have internet access so for them physical money is everything.

True physical money excel on this.  when there is no electricity or internet, it will really shutdown all the transaction.  We cannot buy anything but there is another solution for this, people will go back to the ancient way of trading.  That is barter.  Goods for goods, that is if a person have something valuable in him to exchange for foods and other basic necessities.

[Fortify]

If the transaction fees remain low and it is a totally autonomous network, then in theory it should be good for even the poorest. They would need a reliable source of internet access and be able to afford a device to use it. For some uses it can help eliminate corruption which afflicts many of the poorest people. You could see situations where physical money is more of a risk to the poor with robberies and other crime.

[machinek20]

Yeah, I think we are not too far from that situation, the good things is, it is very convenient to make transaction using only card or mobile phone and you can bring a lot of money without attracting people, the bad things is when a disaster or the connection is not stable, at that point you wont be able to spend a dime

[player514]

Yeah, I think we are not too far from that situation, the good things is, it is very convenient to make transaction using only card or mobile phone and you can bring a lot of money without attracting people, the bad things is when a disaster or the connection is not stable, at that point you wont be able to spend a dime

That's true too. I haven't really thought of the idea of a bitcoin card. You can load up the balance like a debit card and use that balance. In that case, the homeless would just need to have access to that card. I think this can be achieved pretty easily in comparison to a tech device.

[NewBet]

I think it is much, much safer to have an economy without physical money because there are less muggings. The point of mugging someone is you take/steal their physical money, but if there is not any then muggings would not happen.

[edynolan]

as you are right that if all currencies turn into a physical currency it is not possible that the best friend is a hacker.
as the poor may be so detrimental that they can not afford to buy some sort of technology to save their money, it's scary if it happens in our country

[RoronoaJorah]

Is It safe for the poorest?, I think the poorest wont even have the gadets to put in their cryptocurrencies, so they can't even have anything because people won't be able to give them change or coins. Cryptocurrency need wallets so that you could keep some, so without wallet, they won't be able to recieve any amount of money.

[Ljanesanti]

I think that would be bad and scary. That means a lot of people especially on the poor side of the world , given a scenario will be more prone to be taken advantage by those people who can. The reality is on the said of the humanity these are the people who cannot afford security, protection, education and power. And that is the truth. I hope that time will not come

[Hexah]

I think it is a slow process to have that kind of scenarios but in my point of view it is good for everyone since there would be a fast way of doing some transactions in the process since it is automated. The only problem with that or should I say the disadvantage is that we rely much on electricity for that and if there are case of blackouts we will be in vain since no legal tender that will be issued, I think we should balance the two for the better.

And regarding to that friend thing of hackers that would really be a good choice but who knows who they are, they will be really rare to be find when that time comes.

[entrepmind23]

Imagine the situation in which we don't have any physical money and every currency is digitalized. The US dollar is now a token, the Japanese Yen is only in the network and the British pound is a fast-moving digital coin. What are the consequences of such an economy for the poorest of the population? Do you think that a few people can influence the digital wealth of people and wouldn't hackers be the best people to have as friends?

It would be hard for the poorest if it will be all digital because somehow they should get a gadget so that they can have transactions or else they would not be able to eat. It is even harder to put food in their stomach, how much more to purchase gadget that may be too expensive for them or if they were able to get one, it might not be that quality phone that may broke easily and they would end up having no gadget again. The possibility of enforcing digital currency and eliminating fiat currency totally is just not ideal for me because there are still so many people who have no access to the basic tools needed to access the network and somehow we need money to access it and the poorest of the poor have even difficulty in finding their next meal how much more having money to buy the tools needed.

[michellee]

the poorest don't have chance to make money and they are getting hard to make money because they need device to help them. i am sure that it will influence the digital wealth for some people but i don't think that the hacker will be the best friend for the people because people will thinking that the hacker is an attacker for their security.

[Agamemnus]

I don't know why people think physical money is the best form of money that is available in the world right now. Physical money is terrible and has many faults. BTC is far superior in any aspect.

[sasaki111]

Actually the money you deposit into the bank goes from the bank to the central bank, there the money is graded as whether it can be sent back for use in the country or not. If its not in a good condition it is destroyed and if it is in a usable condition it is returned back into the economy. The bank is then only left with the digital money and not the physical money. Although the bank can keep some of the physical money or order new physical money from the central bank.

[Pleione527]

This would be very difficult for those people who are part of lower level of the society losing physical money means we will be using the technology of crypto currencies which I think they doesn't know because they are not educated about it. People might be more poorer because of this situation and I think the government can implement it. Its very hard and complicated.

[ajmapalo22]

I think government cannot apply this kind of economy the idea of having no physical money will become a big problem because not every one can adopt with the technology of bitcoin and aside from that I don't think cryptos cant sustain the demand needed if paper money will be gone. The number of bitcoin is limited while the demand is continue to grow that would be a big issue that they need to settle first

[audaciousbeing]

Imagine the situation in which we don't have any physical money and every currency is digitalized. The US dollar is now a token, the Japanese Yen is only in the network and the British pound is a fast-moving digital coin. What are the consequences of such an economy for the poorest of the population? Do you think that a few people can influence the digital wealth of people and wouldn't hackers be the best people to have as friends?

The way it is today, it seems impossible but I can say conveniently its something we are drifting towards whether we like it or not.

Today we talk about cashless policy and the poor does not need to be educated to be involved but they will be forced to align by the educated and the rich people in the society.

For example, all over the world, the rich will employ the poor which means the responsibility of paying the poor falls on the rich who will then simply tell the poor "give me your bank account to pay, its our policy not to pay cash" even though the poor does not want to be in the bank net, by virtue of that, he is forced to comply then  learn to also operate a bank account.

The same thing will happen if we all migrate to a digital currency world and in as much it won't be easy at first, with right enlightenment, publicity and some level of force by government, every one will fall in line whether the rich or the poor.

[manselr]

Imagine the situation in which we don't have any physical money and every currency is digitalized. The US dollar is now a token, the Japanese Yen is only in the network and the British pound is a fast-moving digital coin. What are the consequences of such an economy for the poorest of the population? Do you think that a few people can influence the digital wealth of people and wouldn't hackers be the best people to have as friends?

Most people out there can't even reach the end of the month with enough money to call yourself other than surviving, so what people do is work under the radar for cash. This is common in people that have some sort of skill like computer skills (offering repairs), language skills (offering classes), construction skills (offering fixing your bathroom or whatever).. and the list goes on and on.

Most people just can't afford paying every tax that there is otherwise they wouldn't be able to comfortably reach the end of the month, and going from paycheck to paycheck while you rot inside your bedroom because you have no money other than paying taxes, food and bills sucks and you would rather be dead than live that life, so I understand why people resort to working for cash away from the government stealing all of your money.

But once governments get rid of cash, Bitcoin will be the way to keep doing this for the people that need to, which means the price will skyrocket.