Countries where cash is on the verge of extinction | Hacker News Reader

Countries where cash is on the verge of extinction

bbc.com

30 pointsfinid11 comments

The problem with a cashless society is that if all payments are tracked or controlled by a third party, it's impossible to make black market transactions or grey market transactions.

The line between legal and illegal keeps changing, as attitudes in society changes, but not allowing people to vote with their wallets which way society should go is an incredibly bad idea.

How could you run a gay club in a cashless country where it is illegal to be gay? How could you buy marijuana in a cashless state where the legality of it is undefined? How can you donate to wikileaks when no US-based payment provider wants to facilitate payments to it?

The argument against cash is exactly the same as people not caring about their web browsing history being accessible to others, and saying 'they have nothing to hide'.

Well, one day you might have something to hide. For good reasons or bad reasons or whatever, and that's when privacy is a good thing. That's when anonymous cash is a good thing.

Agreed. Cash is key to privacy and to prevent totalitarian states from doing even more mass surveillance, controlling every single thing we buy.

> The problem with a cashless society is that if all payments are tracked or controlled by a third party

Problem for you but imho one of the key motivations for getting rid of cash.

Our civil liberties are increasingly dependent on the "good will" of governments. Globally they play-act their conflicts, but every single one of them agrees that their citizens need to be monitored 24/7.

Digital cash in combination with IoT monitoring of infrastructure such as utility metrics, and your friendly big-brother in your mobile device likely will make it extremely difficult for a bartering economy/black-market to emerge as well.

A global Permanent Establishment™ is being constructed right in front of us but alas we're all distracted by phony spats between geopolitical actors who are all (and their families as you can see) stakeholders in this Permanent Establishment™.

We'll just use other's cash for cash transactions: US dollars. It's at least very difficult for the US to eliminate the dollar because it's used in international trade and almost everyone also has it in cash. Which also means the currency in a cashless society will deprecate against the dollar if it loses confidence. Just take a look at Venezuela - people are using USD as their currency is worthless.

Is rejecting cash legal in these countries ? I get they do not want handle the cost and difficulty etc. But refusing cash should be illegal for public establishments at the very least.

Technically it would negate the status of "legal tender" to the money, not really something that a state or governement can allow, not even in private transactions, but of course the article is largely exaggerating:

Title: ... cash is on the verge of extinction...

Inside:"Electronic payments in the Netherlands’ shops and supermarkets overtook cash payments for the first time in 2015 by a narrow margin: 50% debit cards while 49.5% were paid for in cash the remaining 0.5% were credit card-payments. There’s a movement afoot by a coalition of Dutch banks and retailers that want that ratio to increase to 60% electronic payment versus 40% hard currency by 2018. "

So not on the verge extinction at all. Also, whenever someone brings up the a northern European country as the trendsetter for the rest of the world, I can't help but be skeptical.

Where laws exist they tend to be worded around debts only. A store is free to demand payment by any means they wish.

And I am free to not buy from a store that does not accept cash.

Helping the popularity of debit cards in The Netherlands is contactless payments for small amount. I love it, it's super efficient.

Cashless societieas area dictator's pipe dream.

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