Are we heading toward a cashless future?

[YellowSwap]

Cash has become completely obsolete in some countries. People don't carry cash anymore, they only use digital payments. Even if you have cash, you can't even get change when you want to spend it. I think China is the best example, where cash has been completely eliminated. Cash isn't banned, but digital payments are accepted everywhere.

It's not much different in other countries either, it's clear that all countries will switch to digital payments.

True, there was a time where having cash at hand will bring unease to you because when you sleep at night criminals might come to attack you and rob you of that money, in my country this have reduced greatly thanks to online transactions and online banking.

I can remember my parents saying no to a friend who brought large amount of money in cash for safe keeping till the next morning, when I asked my father why they decline it he said we could get robbed tonight.

This will bring debt in two places, they will have to pay the friend back and the money is also something they can't afford, I heard that some people are even doing it intentionally to come and rob you in the night.

[Iranus]

Cash has become completely obsolete in some countries. People don't carry cash anymore, they only use digital payments. Even if you have cash, you can't even get change when you want to spend it. I think China is the best example, where cash has been completely eliminated. Cash isn't banned, but digital payments are accepted everywhere.

It's not much different in other countries either, it's clear that all countries will switch to digital payments.

This is true, digital payments have dominated daily life in China. Cash is hardly used anymore and is only a backup option in rural areas and for the elderly, or in emergencies.

WeChat Pay and Alipay are the two apps that handle most payment transactions in China.

However, I do not think cash will be completely eliminated even if all countries transition to digital systems. Cash will always exist as a fallback option.

[DrBeer]

Can I ask all participants to take a quick mini-survey?
1. Do you prefer to carry a lot of cash and pay with cash? Yes - 1, No - 0.
2. Do you find it convenient to pay online or make cashless payments using a card or mobile phone? Yes - 1, No - 0
3. How often do you use online marketplaces? Often - 1, Not often - 0,

Please answer with a 3-digit number, e.g., 011, to simplify the analysis.

[Ryu_Ar1]

True, there was a time where having cash at hand will bring unease to you because when you sleep at night criminals might come to attack you and rob you of that money, in my country this have reduced greatly thanks to online transactions and online banking.

It is just one of the possibilities that could happen and indeed such things are difficult for us to control because for the problem of robbery regardless of whether we have cash or electronic money everything will be the same when we are targeted but the shortcomings in physical cash are experiences that I have seen from my grandmother and grandfather who still keep physical money directly because they do not trust banks because the old school system of thought is when the physical money is damaged which makes this unfit for transactions and this is the most likely to happen.
This is also another form of risk and where I live things like this a few years ago are still commonplace because conventional information and thinking is still inherent so that there are alternatives to technology such as crypto and even banks even though they will be about because it does not match the way they were in the past.

Can I ask all participants to take a quick mini-survey?
1. Do you prefer to carry a lot of cash and pay with cash? Yes - 1, No - 0.
2. Do you find it convenient to pay online or make cashless payments using a card or mobile phone? Yes - 1, No - 0
3. How often do you use online marketplaces? Often - 1, Not often - 0,

Please answer with a 3-digit number, e.g., 011, to simplify the analysis.

011


Your example is my answer. this is exactly what’s happening to me right now.

[Berry2d]

I prefer to say no, cash is money that will always be in use despite the continuous decline in users over time due to the trend of digital payments and digital balance storage such as bank accounts.
What will definitely happen is that the dominance of digital transactions will be much greater than cash, but it will not completely eliminate cash transactions, there will always be people who make cash transactions wherever it is.

Yes there won't be complete elimination of cash in our daily transactions but will only end up reducing the circulation of cash to an extent because the risk associated with the transfer of cash is very high compared to a cashless transactions. From my humble opinion,  I completely support the partial elimination of cash and increase cashless transactions because of : one, the risk associated to the transportation of cash is very high,  cash exposes people to danger and so on. To to reduce life killing threat that has to do with cash, I think the best is to key into a cashless transactions system that will help eliminating most of this challenges and keep things normal.

[STT]

I would rather argue the opposite occurs from the fallout of paper over usage.   I was watching earlier about the Chinese first use of paper money and how it became over produced to service the expenses of an empire hence modern China has acquired a long term respect for gold and other solid value.   What China has innately learnt to respect the world may do the same after the fallout from over use of paper becomes obvious in this generation, alot of the damage is already done and could accelerate.
  This whole failure of trust could easily cause a swing back to physical and commodity value in general over debt or paper iou system which has become so deceptive and misused in modern times.   Though crypto is different I think the general influence would mean we do not see the end of cash in a physical way.

[Akbarkoe]

I prefer to say no, cash is money that will always be in use despite the continuous decline in users over time due to the trend of digital payments and digital balance storage such as bank accounts.
What will definitely happen is that the dominance of digital transactions will be much greater than cash, but it will not completely eliminate cash transactions, there will always be people who make cash transactions wherever it is.

Yes there won't be complete elimination of cash in our daily transactions but will only end up reducing the circulation of cash to an extent because the risk associated with the transfer of cash is very high compared to a cashless transactions. From my humble opinion,  I completely support the partial elimination of cash and increase cashless transactions because of : one, the risk associated to the transportation of cash is very high,  cash exposes people to danger and so on. To to reduce life killing threat that has to do with cash, I think the best is to key into a cashless transactions system that will help eliminating most of this challenges and keep things normal.

Cashless is not a good option either, where we need an alternative payment, if relying on cash when there is a problem with the device used or the network or whatever it is so that it becomes a big problem for digital payments will hamper your transaction, you must understand the risks about this as someone who understands the vulnerability of the two payment mechanisms.

I still support that alternatives should always be there, don't because we think modern style so we forget the risk of something that can make us stop in transactions, currently I still hold cash when traveling even though in the city it is very available online payments, but I don't know I experienced something bad so for anticipation tools is the solution of alternatives.

[junder]

Yes there won't be complete elimination of cash in our daily transactions but will only end up reducing the circulation of cash to an extent because the risk associated with the transfer of cash is very high compared to a cashless transactions. From my humble opinion,  I completely support the partial elimination of cash and increase cashless transactions because of : one, the risk associated to the transportation of cash is very high,  cash exposes people to danger and so on. To to reduce life killing threat that has to do with cash, I think the best is to key into a cashless transactions system that will help eliminating most of this challenges and keep things normal.

It's true what you said, although today people prefer the use of digital money but it does not completely eliminate digital money, and as you said only reduces it. And maybe it is true that the current generation prefers digital money when making payments but in certain situations this digital money cannot be done because it can only use cash.
Regardless, I think cash is here to stay.

[icebar]

Physical money may not disappear entirely, but the introduction of cashless policy is play a vital role in our economy. Before now, we use to carry money about, and making any transaction involves going to the bank first, and struggling to withdraw money. Today, many business men , and women prefer going cashless than carrying money around, and this saves people from many danger. The rate of robbery has reduced, because many people have stopped carrying huge amount of money around. There are places where shop owners now value receiving money on transfer and some uses their ATM and POS machines for payment and receiving of cash, and to me, cashless policy, and future will be very beneficial to us.

The present time is not like the past, because once the type of transaction was to give cash in hand and carry a heavy wallet, but the present time has left that past behind, although it has not changed completely, but the present is different, money is no longer limited to paper, rather it has now become a rapidly effective economic force through digital transfers. However, the life and transactions of these advanced people are now very easy, fast, affordable, safe and very convenient. We can now send money everywhere in the world very safely and quickly. In the future, these things will be improved even more.

[STT]

My one hope for cashless is when value is not transmitted from a central authority because its no longer useful or even accurate to depict value in such a way.   If we had free energy or some giant change from current world commerce it could alter everything away from political debt as currency towards ideas and value of usage being the most important factor in true value exchange between people.

  Its hard too even describe it would be so different from now but yet I do think its possible and this would be how I view cashless, a transmission of value not biased towards the physical.   Say if we had AI tokens as money, that'd be a very different world.  I don't think it happens but at least its in sight as a concept to consider perhaps.

[Abiky]

My one hope for cashless is when value is not transmitted from a central authority because its no longer useful or even accurate to depict value in such a way.   If we had free energy or some giant change from current world commerce it could alter everything away from political debt as currency towards ideas and value of usage being the most important factor in true value exchange between people.

  Its hard too even describe it would be so different from now but yet I do think its possible and this would be how I view cashless, a transmission of value not biased towards the physical.   Say if we had AI tokens as money, that'd be a very different world.  I don't think it happens but at least its in sight as a concept to consider perhaps.

That would be a distant dream. Governments simply won't let this happen. I mean, there are a lot of corrupt politicians that wouldn't want a "fair" system powered by AI to take place. It would "destroy" their "business". A currency based on ideas and value of usage, would only be ideal in a utopian world.

I certainly wouldn't want to live in a cashless future where governments are the "Kingmakers" of our financial life. There will be surveillance everywhere and zero freedom. Many people don't care about their self-sovereignty or freedom, so they will support CBDCs no matter what. It's what's coming. And we should be prepared for it.

[Crypto_Timothy]

I do think physical money will become less common over time but I am not convinced it will disappear completely because cash still serves important purposes, especially in areas with limited digital infrastructure especially during network outages or like for people who simply prefer having a tangible way to store and spend their money, so yeah as long as there are situations where digital systems are unavailable then physical money will likely continue to have importance.
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[Ayers]

I do think physical money will become less common over time but I am not convinced it will disappear completely because cash still serves important purposes, especially in areas with limited digital infrastructure especially during network outages or like for people who simply prefer having a tangible way to store and spend their money, so yeah as long as there are situations where digital systems are unavailable then physical money will likely continue to have importance.
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That is already happening. Cash is becoming less common, and people have increasingly been shifting toward digital payment method

However, I agree that cash will disappear completely. Not because of infrastructure limitations or the awareness of certain groups, but because digital payment system also have their own limitation and drawback. What would happen to the economy if all transactions depended entirely on digital system and they experienced failures, cyberattack or large scale outages?

Therefore, although cash may seem outdated, the government and banks will not eliminate it completely, and it may become a backup option.

[fruktik]

For digital payments to operate smoothly, we need internet connectivity and there are times when internet service is down due to different reasons. This is why I
always keep some cash with me to counter situations where digital payment is down. As far a cash is concerned, I think it will continue to exist along with digital cash at least for next 5 years. Digital payments have made it quite easy for us to pay but on the other side our spending's have also increased because of readily available digital cash anywhere we go.

This is a very wise decision. I've recently started keeping some cash myself, to avoid getting into trouble. Internet outages have become quite common in my country, so the need for cash is only growing. Even some stores advertise that they only accept paper money. And if the economic situation worsens, people are hoarding even more paper money in case of emergency.

[bakasabo]

For digital payments to operate smoothly, we need internet connectivity and there are times when internet service is down due to different reasons. This is why I
always keep some cash with me to counter situations where digital payment is down. As far a cash is concerned, I think it will continue to exist along with digital cash at least for next 5 years. Digital payments have made it quite easy for us to pay but on the other side our spending's have also increased because of readily available digital cash anywhere we go.

This is a very wise decision. I've recently started keeping some cash myself, to avoid getting into trouble. Internet outages have become quite common in my country, so the need for cash is only growing. Even some stores advertise that they only accept paper money. And if the economic situation worsens, people are hoarding even more paper money in case of emergency.

Why not use digital cards? You dont need constant or stable internet connection for that. Chip or magnetic line exchange information with terminal offline. Your transaction stays in terminals memory, and later it transfers it when terminals gets internet connection. Only issue is that terminal can hold only a certain amount of operations until it requires internet connection to exchange data with bank. However that amount is large and varies from 5k to 10k transaction before terminals demands internet connection. By internet connection I mean wireless connection. Simply plug in cable for a minute and  ready to continue.

[Franctoshi]

We're operating a cashless economy or society already just that it hasn't taken its full effect, so it's already here because most of the transactions we do today are done online, but just that it will take a bit of time before all countries will finally queue in and begin to operate a total cashless economy, it's most likely going to be something of the next generation from ours.

[Smartvirus]

This is a very wise decision. I've recently started keeping some cash myself, to avoid getting into trouble. Internet outages have become quite common in my country, so the need for cash is only growing. Even some stores advertise that they only accept paper money. And if the economic situation worsens, people are hoarding even more paper money in case of emergency.

I don’t see much reason why we should hoard paper money, these outages don’t usually last too long and we’ve got several networks to jump on, at least in my country, not to mention the many financial institutions that exist these days. In the assumption that we were to go cashless,
It wouldn’t make any difference if we were to operate a cashless policy since, cash wouldn’t be accepted anyways and whatever is stored away would be to your own detriment.

I don’t see how we can ever go cashless in the society, this isn’t going to happen. That’s because, digital currency often refers you to be physically present to make these transactions. Yes, one can argue that, you can make prefers from your home and pay for deliveries but, these services isn’t universally available and their are those that are physically handicap, those with special needs for which the cash system is of a huge advantage and they can’t be excluded from society just because we intend to go cashless.

[Adiljutt156]

It will be better to solve some of the security challenges associated with going out with large sum of cash.criminality will be reduced to the barest minimum because it will be difficult for criminals to gain access to raw cash with cashless policy in place.for me it's a better option.lets every country adopt cashless policy

It is true that by having a cashless system the amount of crime can be reduced but that does not guarantee the crime to be at the barest minimum level. It is very easy for the criminals to do fraud online they can do identity theft, hacking, financial scamming and it is getting difficult to detect and recover as compared to those physical cash theft.

If there is some issue with the banking for example there is some technical failure or cyber attack then it will be difficult and impossible for the people to access their money so cash will still be there as an alternative that provide convenience to the people who are moving toward the cashless money.

[LastKiss]

We're operating a cashless economy or society already just that it hasn't taken its full effect, so it's already here because most of the transactions we do today are done online, but just that it will take a bit of time before all countries will finally queue in and begin to operate a total cashless economy, it's most likely going to be something of the next generation from ours.

People are now spending money more easily after the rise of digital currency. When we talk about discipline, people behavior before and after the introduction of digital money is indeed very different. In the past, we had to be very careful about fake money because many merchants were harmed by it. That is one of the reasons governments encouraged society to use digital payments and strongly supported them.

However, wasteful spending has increased because of the convenience and flexibility of digital money, both systems have advantages and disadvantages, depending on how we deal with the problem . Also in the past there was a high risk of fake money but with digital money is it really safer? I think criminals will always find ways to trick it

[Abiky]

I do think physical money will become less common over time but I am not convinced it will disappear completely because cash still serves important purposes, especially in areas with limited digital infrastructure especially during network outages or like for people who simply prefer having a tangible way to store and spend their money, so yeah as long as there are situations where digital systems are unavailable then physical money will likely continue to have importance.
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Some think governments will allow people to use CBDCs offline via the use of a "physical bearer asset". Just like how OpenDime on Bitcoin works. In this case, there would be no need for cash. The idea is for governments to control our financial lives. And what better way than phasing out cash for good? It's going to take some time, considering that the elderly are reluctant to change.

New or younger generations will quickly embrace digital cash payments. China already has its own CBDC, with many other countries to follow. Like I've said many times before, a cashless future is inevitable. At least, we'll have Bitcoin to keep us company.