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Comment by Angostura | Hacker News Reader

Except that Mark Carney has said very publicly that he sees absolutely no chance of physical cash going away.

I wonder what Mark Carney would have said if you'd asked him in 1990 whether shops were going to go away because people would be buying (practically) everything on a phone in people's pocket which could communicate with literally every else's phone in their pocket anywhere in the world instantly? And what about cryptocurrencies. People are rubbish at predicting the future.

Whether or not people's virtual cash valuation is going to continue to be represented by numbers on bits of paper and metal as opposed to numbers on computer databases seems like a yet more subtle idea to fail to fully grasp at the moment.

Shops aren't going away in all history to come and go. Some people and some cultures moreso actually understand what in life matters and some items will forever need physical fitting, thankfully for our raw three-dimensional reality. Cash won't ever be erased from Earth's surface not in a thousand reincarnarions, mark those words on the outer layers of your soul.

It will be like paper maps and stamps, available yet only used by old people who grew up with it.

For hiking tours, a printed map is way more comfortable for people to gather around and discuss the way. And it does not drain batterie ...

but a printed map is battered by the rain

Most of my hiking maps are printed on Tyvek or the equivalent.

And in any case a map is a piece of safety equipment - you spec if for the worst case scenario.

Classical paper maps yes. I manage to trash them after one hike even without rain.

But nowdays you get them coated in a plastic layer ... very nice, water proof and durable.

edit: or like the othe commenter mentioned, it is not a plastic layer and rather plastic itself called Tyvek or similar

Map holders are a thing

Well this old person has had to donate my backup paper maps to people whose phones were out of charge or who had no map at all and wanted to know where they were.

NB When in Scottish mountains I take:

- An iPhone with offline OS maps

- An external battery for my iPhone and cable

- A paper OS map in a waterproof map case

- A printed A4 backup of an OS map in a plastic bag that I can give to others or to use if other maps become unusable (e.g. blown away - which has happened)

80% of the time I just use the iPhone - still have to use OS map and compass occasionally when things are particularly exciting.

Nobody expects cash to vanish in the foreseeable timescale - but who knows what the situation will be in 30-50 years time? Credit cards as we know them today are barely that old.

And with each series of UK banknote in circulation for ~14 years, planning to put someone on a note in 4 series time is pretty forward-looking :)

30-50 years ago people still used shillings!

They'd probably keep it for old times sake and history even if it isn't used much.

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