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Comment by Svip | Hacker News Reader

> I don't personally know of anybody rebelling against the cashless society, not in any age group. Its not even talked about.

No one is, because the cashless society isn't happening. The concept of abandoning cash is at this stage merely a thought experiment. Even in Sweden, the most significant action taken in that direction is a discussion about whether to have a discussion, from the government.

But why would any government abandon cash? Any fiat currency needs at least some cash to go around, otherwise the remaining cash exchanges that still happens, a lot of which are untracked, would be outside of the control that governments still have over them; valuation. If you take away their cash, they will simply find another bartering tool.

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You're right that if you take away cash the sketchy side of the economy might switch to euros or dollar :)

But that won't work for shops trying to avoid taxes. It'll also make it much harder to buy stuff from criminals, as you would have to go get cash somewhere.

What other cash exchanges still happens?

Tourists, I'd imagine. I am not sure how many merchants you know in Sweden that accepts UnionPay? At least of the smaller ones. And I know most German tourists prefer cash, generally any tourist from a cash heavy society will prefer cash.

Sure, their big ticket items are still going to be hotels and the like, where they will pay with a credit card, but they are not interested in coming if they can pay the small merchant with cash. Because they don't have access to the local infrastructure for digital payments, that the locals do.

When I travel abroad I just use my mastercard, why doesn't that work for them? I don't know anyone without a mastercard or a visa.

Where do you travel? There are plenty of countries I've been to that don't accept any foreign cards. Unless you only go to the fancy hotels and restaurants, I suppose. But if you actually want to interact with small merchants abroad, you need cash.

I never travel abroad without cash, and that includes when I travel to Sweden.

> I never travel abroad without cash, and that includes when I travel to Sweden.

I've been in Sweden plenty times and haven't even seen a single Swedish krona. In the Copenhagen subreddit we also recommend people not bringing in cash, at least as long as their credit card situation is somewhat reasonable.

In 2019, I was able to spend 4 days in Canada without touching a single Canadian Dollar. On the other hand, 4 days in Germany absolutely required cash at virtually every meal and other non-hotel purchase.

Many Germans don't. Or don't know their PINs. Or have horrible foreign transaction fees, since they never use them nor care.

Can't people just go to the bank and get euros? I would think buying stuff from criminals would be just as easy as ever. Would the government track euro withdrawals without traveling?

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