Can the blockchain tech be used to prevent counterfeiting of physical cash?

[dothebeats]

That means overhauling the system and perusing the blockchain on all fiat transactions which in itself is already pretty far-fetched. The central bank has their own guidelines and security measures to prevent counterfeit cash from flowing around freely which are embedded on the currency that they issue which, to me is already one way of combatting the said event/scenario. Perhaps fiat will soon migrate to blockchain tech, but in the nearest future I doubt that to come to fruition.

[Kakmakr]

That means overhauling the system and perusing the blockchain on all fiat transactions which in itself is already pretty far-fetched. The central bank has their own guidelines and security measures to prevent counterfeit cash from flowing around freely which are embedded on the currency that they issue which, to me is already one way of combatting the said event/scenario. Perhaps fiat will soon migrate to blockchain tech, but in the nearest future I doubt that to come to fruition.

No, I disagree. This can be a process that can be slowly phased in by digitizing fiat cash as it is deposited into the Banks and then re-distributed to the clients via ATMs. Yes, you might have to add something like a small QR code on the bills to display the unique serial number, but this can be added with all new coins that are printed.

I think the best solution would be to go cash free from the start, because you do not need to change any "paper" currencies or the supporting services that use these currencies. 

[beerlover]

I was just having my cup of tea and watching the ongoing Ashes series... a strange thought came to my mind.

All of us know that one of the main advantage with Bitcoin is that it can't be counterfeited. On the other hand, counterfeiting is a major issue with fiat cash.
According to some estimates, the sale of counterfeits and pirated goods are worth $1,700 billion per year, and the sale of counterfeited banknotes is worth $250 billion.

Is it possible to use this technology to prevent the counterfeiting of bank notes? Don't tell me to install microchips on all the banknotes. We need to keep the manufacturing cost below $0.10 per piece. I thought about it for 2 hours, but no practical solution came to my mind. Do you guys have any suggestions?

That is absolutely right, since bitcoin is not controlled by anyone, it cannot be duplicated, the only crime that can ever occur is for people to steal bitcoin from people to make transactions and that will be problem from the owner. This aspect is one direction that government needs to look into, with bitcoin, it will be absolutely impossible for any issue of counterfeit to ever arise, but it will still be quite impossible because Fiat can never be phased out, as long as we have fiat in existence, there will always be this issue.

The only way people can have access to bitcoin right now is still to use some fiat to buy it and as long as money is being printed, they can still use the counterfeit fiat to buy bitcoin, except maybe government is really to change the entire currency into bitcoin without ever printing cash again.

[Carlton Banks]

For me, it looks like there is no practical solution for this issue. As one of the users earlier posted, in order to implement Blockchain technology in banknotes, we need a trusted party that links physical banknote with Blockchain. And this can be copied or counterfeited.

and so it was that the thread did end

[Turk Ace]

What a silly thing to think. You just solved your own question. You don't use fiat at all you use crypto. No need for waste paper or bs fraud notes. This is interesting sine I was also thinking how ridiculous it was that there are scanning machine that check if cash is real at the tills. It a technologically advanced world using paper seems really stupid.

[timerland]

Why spend money and other resources on curbing a problem when we can eradicate it once and for all. One of the main reason for the development of the blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies is to solve issues with fiat currencies. Counterfeiting is one of the problems which is also causing huge debts to most countries in Africa and other parts of the world.  It's high time we move into the future and use our cryptocurrencies in our day to day transactions this is a more secured and faster way of making transactions.

This is a pretty accurate post, most advanced governments are already making moves to turn their society into a cash-less one, where having issues like these (counterfeit cash) would be something of the past. It's way harder to fake online money, then physical cash.

We can already see developments made in the field now - for example, where I live, in the past 5 years there has been a huge increase in card and "tap and go" payment systems. A lot of cash businesses in our area were forced to be able to accept card, or they would go out of business - it's not their product that's the problem, it's that no one carries cash anymore, it's way too inconvenient compared to using your phone or card.

Actually we are heading towards a banknote free economy. The fiat transactions are being held mostly online and if we be able to turn the current fiat to work under blockchain, there would be zero counterfeit fiat currency. Not only that, there would be much lesser tax evasion and money laundering as it would be easy to track the money. Though it may risk the financial privacy of individual, we are moving towards regulated and non-regulated cryptocurrencies.

This depends a lot on the governments, we've already seen a lot of progress from mainstream companies like Facebook and countries like China look to work with fiat and crypto side by side, and try bring a lot more regulation to crypto.