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

[Josefjix]

Physical cash won't be replaced no matter how fast technology is growing.
1. Physical cash/currency is the symbol of a country
2. It is used for day to day transactions that mostly doesn't require technical support and help.

I would have listed a lot of other factors to put into consideration but those are the basic ones,

[1715371349]

1715371349

[Febo]

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

Bitcoin is digital cash. Bitcoin is the grantee that cash will never die. Very soon people will realise how important cash and digital cash are.

[deisik]

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

What do CBDC's have to do with this transition?

Regardless, if some government decides to get rid of cash money completely, people will start to use a foreign currency instead. If all currencies across the globe turn into cashless fiat, people will start to use something else. All in all, it looks like you are putting the cart before the horse, i.e. cash is going to die only when people no longer need it en masse. Until then, any government trying this out will only hurt itself

[Kasabus]

Physical cash won't be replaced no matter how fast technology is growing.
1. Physical cash/currency is the symbol of a country
2. It is used for day to day transactions that mostly doesn't require technical support and help.

I would have listed a lot of other factors to put into consideration but those are the basic ones,

Even if we are heading into a cashless society especially that it is needed most in this pandemic time, i cannot give a definite time when will this physical cash will be phase out. Majority of the people are still into physical cash transactions day by day and turning this into a cashless one might give hard time for all those regular people who are only used to this. Cashless transactions might be adopted in some countries but i don't think this physical cash transactions will definitely vanish.

[IntuitiveCoins]

Such a thing will never happen in the US. Too many people will be against it. Look at the anger of many people because the "government" is forcing them to wear face masks. They believe that they're trying to take away their freedoms. They will look at a move such as facing cash out in a similar light.

[TIDOVEE]

I am waiting for Bitcoin to come in and get the cashless policy established. Better still let a country start first, maybe the China or USA, from there, other countries will pick up.sincerely, the idea of cashless would have been of high advantage is a time this when COVID 19 is raging and transmissible through money exchange,it will really take time and can better achieved if we can make everyone computer literate.

[Josefjix]

Physical cash won't be replaced no matter how fast technology is growing.
1. Physical cash/currency is the symbol of a country
2. It is used for day to day transactions that mostly doesn't require technical support and help.

I would have listed a lot of other factors to put into consideration but those are the basic ones,

Even if we are heading into a cashless society especially that it is needed most in this pandemic time, i cannot give a definite time when will this physical cash will be phase out. Majority of the people are still into physical cash transactions day by day and turning this into a cashless one might give hard time for all those regular people who are only used to this. Cashless transactions might be adopted in some countries but i don't think this physical cash transactions will definitely vanish.

That would definitely be a double pandemic for the people of a particular region battling with Covid-19 and Poverty. Let's take illiterates consumer for a example, they don't have bank accounts to carry out daily livelihood technical transactions. Buying foods and beverages from vendors would be hell on earth. To fitch out physical currencies at least people in the rural areas needed to be educated to a very standard stage

[fiulpro]

As long as there is poverty in the world and people do not have smart devices and access to education , it would really be a problem when it comes to completely phasing out the Cash. Plus the system needs to be clean 100% , free of corruption and at the same time we need to understand that we cannot really expect the internet to come everywhere there are places in the world without mobile services , we won't be able to find a solution to that problem.
Unfortunately we cannot expect the old generation to know everything needed to use online banking , transactions, cryptocurrencies , it's really hard for them to adjust. Therefore as long as we remain neutral for everyone , we cannot completely take this step .
There are countries where people are provided with special privileges if they use online banking to make their transfections and there are companies even offering them discounts which actually makes the consumers more bent towards the online payments.

[lixer]

Where did you see them talking about CBDC? Because I can’t see anyone that’s still talking about that now.
And countries I know that took the step to create their own CBDC, no one is talking about those, not to talk of making use of it.

As much as I know, they are all dead. I was looking forward to the Chinese releasing their own digital Yuan so I would see how it turns out to be, but no one is still talking about the digital Yuan since this Coronavirus came on-board . As for contactless payment methods, there are so many of them: PayPal, Payoneer, Cashapp, etc. And you can also use Bitcoin where it’s possible.

[exstasie]

Where did you see them talking about CBDC? Because I can’t see anyone that’s still talking about that now.
And countries I know that took the step to create their own CBDC, no one is talking about those, not to talk of making use of it.

As much as I know, they are all dead.

What kind of timeline did you expect? It was only a few months ago that several European countries and the ECB announced working on CBDCs.

Deutsche Bank analysts projected a couple months ago that it would take ~3 years before we would see them circulating: https://www.spglobal.com/marketintelligence/en/news-insights/latest-news-headlines/from-hygiene-to-aid-covid-19-strengthens-case-for-central-bank-digital-money-58321056

As of May:

Central banks in 46 countries are considering creating a central bank digital currency (CBDC) using a constrained form of distributed ledger technology (DLT), according to a new survey.

[Genemind]

It may take a few years if we look back on how people trade or what people had used as a medium of exchange centuries ago, people adapt to what is more convenient. A cashless society is not far from reality but it will take time. People should be knowledgeable and it should be adopted by the mass before it can happen. There will be a lot of changes that need to take place first, whether if the government is willing to embrace this change in terms of medium of exchange.

[Ucy]

Physical cash won't be replaced no matter how fast technology is growing.
1. Physical cash/currency is the symbol of a country
2. It is used for day to day transactions that mostly doesn't require technical support and help.

I would have listed a lot of other factors to put into consideration but those are the basic ones,

They could use the digital/virtual ones if they want, as long as they don't make owning cash (physical currency) illegal.
I can image different ways people can turn their online currencies/tokens into physical ones. The right to do so should not be denied or taken away from people. There are advantages of physical ones

[smyslov]

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.

I don't think this is going to happen, there will always some region that cannot transact using digitalcash, because htere will some region of this planet that does not have an internet connection and there are remote places that do not have electricity and internet, fiat will always exist because we still have some minority people to consider from far flung areas.

[The Sceptical Chymist]

As we enter the digital realm due to the effects of COVID-19

I'm not sure I agree with this premise altogether.  The outbreak has affected a lot of things in our daily lives, but I still see people paying for things with cash (and I do as well).  Granted, even before COVID-19 people had started to shift toward digital payments, but I'm not aware of an increase since March or so.

I have seen signs in stores asking customers to pay with their phones or credit/debit cards, but as far as I know there haven't been any businesses near me that actually require it.  And then there's the coin shortage in the US, which is kind of unusual IMO.  But in any case, I seriously doubt we're going to see cash get phased out anytime soon--probably not in our lifetime, but even though I say that I don't have complete confidence in my statement.  The use of cash is, in fact, dying and that's because it's so much easier to pay with plastic or a phone. 

There's always going to be a need for physical money, however.  You have to realize that if we ever had a grid-down scenario or some other catastrophe that made it impossible to process payments electronically, there would obviously still be a need to pay for things.  I'm hoping the banks, governments, and everyone who ever buys or sells things realizes this and doesn't allow a completely cashless society to happen.

[serjent05]

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.

I believe physical currency will become obsolete overtime.  As technology advance so is the payment system.  It may take more than a decade but eventually physical cash will be completely abandoned just like the barter system.  As Heraclitus say... "The only constant in life is change".

[The cure]

In my opinion physical cash cannot be replaced or lose value because it symbolizes or represents it's own country, maybe we can limit our use to it also due to the threat of covid-19. Maybe this will be possible in rich countries but not in other countries that are lagging behind and there are still many people do not have access to the internet.

[beerlover]

I think they are currently doing it as much as they can, they do not want to give out physical cash at all, they want to keep all those physical cash in their bank vaults so that they wouldn't have to deal with regulations that forces them to have certain amount of cash at all times if they want to invest or loan out certain amount and that is not even 1 to 1 ratio so they just have to keep their own ratio to a realistic level where they won't be bankrupted if too many people withdraw at the same time.

This means banks are doing everything in their power to make you pay with credit cards and debit cards and even wiring money to each other, as long as you do not end up paying with cash in any place. Of course it will never be 100% but I think it is getting quite common.

[Abiky]

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.

Precisely. For what I know, transitioning from physical cash to digital cash (CBDC) will not be an easy task to achieve. We've got the elderly which are quite skeptical about using technology for their own benefit. Central banks and governments would need to slowly introduce their own CBDCs alongside physical cash until everyone uses digital payments more thoroughly. And as you've said earlier, this could take decades. We might as well enjoy physical cash while it lasts. Once CBDCs completely replaces the current monetary system, anonymity with Fiat will be a thing of the past (due to the Blockchain's transparency). Be aware though, that our economy might remain the same if CBDCs experience inflation. The only difference relative to physical cash will be the ability to make borderless payments within seconds at a fraction of the cost. Banks will mostly benefit from this, instead of the people in the mainstream world.

Given that COVID-19 has encouraged social distancing, it's eliminating the need for people to use physical cash at their favorite retailer or store (since cash carries germs and bacteria). The longer the outbreak takes to disappear in its entirety, the faster CBDCs will become a reality in our society.

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

Exactly. That's main point of governments worldwide. They want complete control over people's money. And what better way to do so with a global blockchain ledger they're able to manipulate at will? I believe that CBDCs will increase surveillance by said entities while minimizing privacy at every way. It'll be worse than credit/debit cards or payment processors like PayPal. CBDCs will be directly linked to central banks and governments as we speak. Only decentralized cryptocurrencies will provide an alternative for people looking to exit the world's monetary system.

With COVID-19 in play, banks and governments will accelerate the development of a CBDC. Right now, China is in the lead as it's testing it's own digital version of the Chinese Yuan. It'll only be a matter of time before other countries follow. There's no rush for a CBDC if physical cash is still being used worldwide. As millennials embrace digital currencies, we'll live in a future where the world's economy will become completely digitized. Elder people might not be able to experience it, but young ones will. Just my thoughts

[Casdinyard]

It depends actually. But surely that would take a lot of years like decades before banks can completely phase out all the physical cash because it is not an easy discussion to phase out all paper money for there are processes that are needed to attend with before coming up into a decision. Of course that would take a legal assistance and an opinion from the people because many people are still reliant and wanted to use physical money than digital money.

Wanting to phase out all the physical money will need a massive adaption first of digital currency because if you would just implement it without readiness, it won't work out because the decision must be favorable for both the people and the government. There are still traditional people that are not aware on using digital cash (CBDC) for they have already been using physical money for so long. People will surely not agree easily on that shifting from physical money to digital cash and that is what is needed to be considered so it would really take time to convince people before banks can totally phase out physical money and convert it into digital cash instead.

[exstasie]

I have seen signs in stores asking customers to pay with their phones or credit/debit cards, but as far as I know there haven't been any businesses near me that actually require it.

Of course not. They'd be losing business from people who only operate on a cash basis. There are plenty of people who get paid in cash or operate cash businesses, not just "the unbanked." It's an important market, at least in the US.

That's not to say there isn't a shift occurring though. In my opinion, the spread of germs via physical cash is a secondary concern. The big weakness the COVID-19 crisis revealed is the inability to quickly infuse cash into the economy via the banking system. It can take months to get on the unemployment rolls in times like these. 3 months after stimulus checks started getting issued, people are still waiting to receive them. There have been massive delays in processing of emergency small business loans.

That's why central banks are so interested all of a sudden. Their biggest fear is a deflationary spiral, an economic depression, and they know a CBDC would allow them to infuse cash where they need to exponentially faster than the current system of bureaucracy and banks. That holds a lot of value for them.