How long will it take banks to phase out physical cash completely?

[Abiky]

As we enter the digital realm due to the effects of COVID-19, the process of central banks phasing out physical cash from existence might take place soon. Before the outbreak, we've been accustomed in using credit/debit cards and contactless payments greatly eliminating the need for physical cash. Now that we're in a "COVID Era", things have accelerated quite a bit. Banks and governments are in talks of adopting CBDCs which could completely eliminate the need to pay for things with physical cash.

Now the real question is, how long will it take banks to start the transition from physical to digital cash (CBDC)? Do you think that physical cash will still be used right after governments adopt CBDCs in their entirety? Or will it take decades before every single person in the world stops transacting with physical cash, paving the way for a full-fledged cashless society? Your input will be greatly appreciated.

[1714797546]

1714797546

[jackg]

Of course it'll take decades. Unless the cbdc is an anonymity coin, you think politicians are going to want to get rid of cash? Even if its controlled by a central party their security might not be too hard to test to gian access to the ledgers...

There are a lot of people these days that don't have Internet afaik (or just refuse to use it or can't use it well) so I don't know how we're going to get around that problem...

I may be handy, as a first step, for a government to issue phones compatible with the currency they want to use andake them available to alpha testers... You can't just use any phone for it and some may be incompatible too. A card capable of signing information could also be more expensive than the current rfid contactless systems in place.

The good thing about cash for people is that it helps you budget and stops you spending everything, which is also the bad thing for companies and governments.

Notes at an atm here are quarenteened it's also possible to have people feed cash into systems that count the value (enough self service machines do this) and these may become more prevelant.

[electronicash]

can't wait for my country to declare and promote to be cashless but there are already systems that is working which we have been using already. its not however crypto.  but as easy to use as wallet with a gui and are accepted by the banks. crypto can't compete to it.

i'd find it difficult for my country to have this cashless transition when political issues aren't resolved. there is a minimum adoption but the country is ideal for bticoin user. if its going to take decades then its best not to anticipate its coming because physical cash is just more comfortable to use for regular person.

[AniviaBtc]

That's not easy to do as people are still not that knowledgeable about the cashless transactions. They are still into the use of traditional payment method that requires paper money to process. If banks will do that immediately, it will just cause struggle or disagreement between the government and its people.

It is not necessary needed for a long term run, maybe during this pandemic it is effective but still people will look forward on using paper money because some of them are surely feel secured when they are using cash on hand. Think about the possibilities when you phase out physical cash and we are only relying on the use of digital currencies.

[CarnagexD]

Really?

Phase out cash? and what for?

When the time where a vaccine already exists, do you think that we still need to have a contact less payment? As we are already immune to the virus when we are injected by the vaccine, there is no need to worry about transmitting the disease because everything will go back to normal once it happened soon. It is not that bad to promote cashless payment but we should give the people an option on what platform will they use to pay their bills or expenses. Let them choose on what kind of transaction they are comfortable with.

[Darker45]

I strongly believe the use of physical cash is here to stay for the next few or even several decades.

I myself would even support it. Let CBDCs be an option but not something that would totally wipe out the use of physical cash. From where I am speaking, there are even adults who do not how to hold a pen. How could they ever manage to operate a smart phone for buying just a pinch of sugar?

To a few highly developed countries in the world, they may proceed anytime. But to the rest, the governments should know better than prodding their central banks to shift to CBDCs as soon as possible. They better be focusing all their efforts on providing clean water first.

[TIDOVEE]

Many corrupt countries will be reluctant to adopt such cashless banking, because they know it will be easier for looters to be detected and the government herself is the head of the looter, so it won't pay them.Well technologically developed countries can still implement this in short time, but in my country we have to consider the young and old, illiterates, petty trading... Then, what will happen to those whose job is to hack accounts. to get this, it will take a long time.

[maydna]

I cannot predict how long it will take because the banks need to announce to the public about that, and the bank withdraws all of the physical money in any fraction. Perhaps, more years until the banks can finish doing that thing. But I am not sure if the banks can take all of the physical money because I am sure that some people will still hold the physical money and sell the physical money to the collector.

The banks and the other company, which is related, needs to educate people on how they can use the credit/debit card or use another digital money so that the process can start, and people will use the digital money to pay. Until that time, people still use physical money because they need to familiarize themselves with using that digital money.

[DraGonD]

Im not sure that they really need it. Speed of this process will depends from goverment of every country

[davis196]

As we enter the digital realm due to the effects of COVID-19, the process of central banks phasing out physical cash from existence might take place soon. Before the outbreak, we've been accustomed in using credit/debit cards and contactless payments greatly eliminating the need for physical cash. Now that we're in a "COVID Era", things have accelerated quite a bit. Banks and governments are in talks of adopting CBDCs which could completely eliminate the need to pay for things with physical cash.

Now the real question is, how long will it take banks to start the transition from physical to digital cash (CBDC)? Do you think that physical cash will still be used right after governments adopt CBDCs in their entirety? Or will it take decades before every single person in the world stops transacting with physical cash, paving the way for a full-fledged cashless society? Your input will be greatly appreciated.

The idea of a cashless society isn't good.A cashless society isn't gong to be some utopia,it will be a dystopia.It will turn people into slaves.I'm a cryptocurrency supporter,but I don't want a cashless society.
Anyway,no central bank in the world is currently stating that it will dump paper money.The CBDC projects don't necessarily mean that central banks will dump paper money.
The transition from paper cash to a cashless payment methods is going to be pretty fast and easy,but only in the developed countries in the western world and the far east of Asia.

[Freeesta]

The transition to cashless payments has already begun. I think it will not take much time. We are gradually accustomed to make payments by cashless payments, because it is convenient. It seems to me that in two years, cash can disappear completely. It is much harder for the government to control their movement. After the crisis, the economy should be updated and this brings changes in the use of cach.

[Wexnident]

The prerequisite for the world fully accepting CBDC is if the government is able to protect it 100% fully from attacks. That, or they can somehow null any reported money that was stolen, that is with proof of ownership and whatnot. That means that the government has a lot to do in terms of marking CBDC for personal ownership, one example would be a unique code for each human, and the code changes when it is switched from person to person.

Yes, paying for stuff digitally is easy and efficient, but it's difficult to implement because of different factors, one being security, as well as accessibility. Like it or not, some people still don't have phones or internet access. Not to mention that free internet for payments that could happen in person to person is impossible without either free internet access or mobile data. Most would like to use free instead, but that implementation has only happened in a few countries as of yet.

[dothebeats]

As long as cash remains to be one of the most untraceable asset in the world, governments would surely fight against CBDCs, or would persist in using physical cash alongside new CBDCs. The idea for digital cash is very much needed in today's world where everything seems to fly by so fast. Everyone's in a hurry, and it might sound absurd but paying with cash on supermarkets with long queues somewhat bring a little anxiety in me; that I feel that I might be wasting someone else's time. Of course not everyone is in the same line of thinking but time is a precious commodity in today's era, and most people value it just the same as mine.

I believe that the transition to digital cash already started with the inception and boom of Paypal and other digital payment processors. It is the first realization of digital cash that almost everyone seem to know exactly how it works. The only thing that banks and governments would need to do is implement a system that works just as good but offer protection for all users. Of course there are tons of other factors, but those are just the basics that they need to tackle in order to successfully implement CBDCs in the public.

[Rikafip]

can't wait for my country to declare and promote to be cashless

I sure hope that my country will never declare such a thing, and I don't think that it is something we should strive for. I am personally still using cash whenever I can ( If I don't have option to use u BTC), as i don't want banks and government know about every single thing I buy, and this what will 100% happen in cashless society. You would be tracked and monitor, and if you buy something that government doesn't approve, you will get in trouble.

So yeah, cash definitely has it's advantages and I hope it  won't go anywhere any time soon as it offers some degree of anonymity.

[romero121]

Over the past few months the physical cash usage has declined alot. This is all due to the pandemic and to avoid the touch that takes place between the users. This way the era of corona too has paved way for the digital cash usage. Banks have now started to go digital integrating with BlockChain technology.

Probably before 2025 the physical cash usage will decrease to 50% globally. By the time cryptocurrencies will be contributing good to the economy.

[XZERO1]

It will take a very long time(at least 20-30 years) for physical cash and paper money to get fully replaced by digital ones, apart from the fact that governments should make it happen there are some issues with non-physical cash that should be resolved before we can think about a scenario which every single person will be using them, for example we have less educated people that are going to have a very hard time using these new technologies to do their everyday purchase.

[Oasisman]

IMO, theres still no definite number of years for such thing to happen. Specially in the third world countries.
I've worked in a department store before, and there were times where the card swipe machine or POS declined a lot of cards (debit/credits, and It happened 5-6 times almost every month, and yes they still haven't reach the credit limit, just a usual system trouble on the bank's edge. And it's still happening today, as I have experienced it several times. So, this alone will be the problem, and there's still definitely a lot of problems that'll occur in the process.

I think the CBDC still needs to figure how to protect the assets that will be stored online or offline from any kinds of fraudulent attacks, since this will for sure the first concern that'll come first to the people's mind. The world isn't ready for a general cashless society. As of now, these 2 payment procedures will co-exist for a very long period of time.

[gentlemand]

It's completely country dependent. Some like Sweden are nearly there already. Others like Japan are nowhere near it.

In the UK they've pledged to keep it alive as millions of oldies don't know any different. They wanted to kill off cheques too but had to roll that back when they realised millions of people still use them.

Really?

Phase out cash? and what for?

To increase control and surveillance of course. A fully digital currency will be a one stop shop to mess with our lives.

[bitbunnny]

This pandemic speeds up some processes of digital transformaton and I think we are getting closer to cashless society.
But to my opinion isn't not up to banks but up to people, their clients. We still have rather high demand for cash, especialy among older population and in underdeveloped countries. So, banks has the eyes in.the market and they can't deprive clients from something they want. However, I think that in the next five years we might live in cashless society.

[Haunebu]

Physical cash will never disappear in my opinion. Why? These are the reasons that I can think of.

Reasons:
- Convenience factor
- Offline usage
- Physical currency enthusiasts
- A habit that is very tough to let go of etc

These are just a couple of reasons. Digital payment methods will continue rising in popularity over time, but physical currencies will survive no matter what.