Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Sweden’s Push to Get Rid of Cash Has Some Saying, ‘Not So Fast’

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 100 posts

Re: Sweden’s Push to Get Rid of Cash Has Some Saying, ‘Not So Fast’

#21

Post by mtgx »

robbiep wrote: post #4

The interesting component to this is what happens when the payment system $hits the bed. 3 weeks ago last friday and saturday in sydney the communications system underlying about 50% of all financial transactions (taxi card readers, many ATMs, many businesses) collapsed with the result that if you didn't have cash you couldn't make an exchange. How robust do people really think these systems are? I certainly have no…

Continuing to use cash should be a national security issue, just like for instance, using open source software is starting to be in some places. Any country that wants to get rid of cash is just making it easy for future rival nations to cripple its economy with a hack or two.

Re: Sweden’s Push to Get Rid of Cash Has Some Saying, ‘Not So Fast’

#22

Post by davedx »

robbiep wrote: post #4

The interesting component to this is what happens when the payment system $hits the bed. 3 weeks ago last friday and saturday in sydney the communications system underlying about 50% of all financial transactions (taxi card readers, many ATMs, many businesses) collapsed with the result that if you didn't have cash you couldn't make an exchange. How robust do people really think these systems are? I certainly have no…

I think the systems are pretty robust by any measure. I've never had a card reader in the Netherlands fail and had to pay with cash before. I have seen ATM's out of order a couple of times though.

If the payment networks all go down, I imagine you'd also have trouble withdrawing cash from an ATM too. What's the alternative? Cash under your mattress for a rainy day? Do you think the value of cash would be stable enough to be useful in this solar flare scenario? I think we'll have bigger issues...

Re: Sweden’s Push to Get Rid of Cash Has Some Saying, ‘Not So Fast’

#24

Post by foldr »

davedx wrote: post #22
robbiep wrote: post #4

The interesting component to this is what happens when the payment system $hits the bed. 3 weeks ago last friday and saturday in sydney the communications system underlying about 50% of all financial transactions (taxi card readers, many ATMs, many businesses) collapsed with the result that if you didn't have cash you couldn't make an exchange. How robust do people really think these systems are? I certainly have no…

I think the systems are pretty robust by any measure. I've never had a card reader in the Netherlands fail and had to pay with cash before. I have seen ATM's out of order a couple of times though. If the payment networks all go down, I imagine you'd also have trouble withdrawing cash from an ATM too. What's the alternative? Cash under your mattress for a rainy day? Do you think the value of cash would be stable enoug…

>What's the alternative?

Withdrawing it from a bank branch.

Re: Sweden’s Push to Get Rid of Cash Has Some Saying, ‘Not So Fast’

#25

Post by lizknope »

ubernostrum wrote: post #12
toxik wrote: post #7

I see a lot of people worry about "what if the connectivity breaks," but truth be told, I had a lot more fuzz with physical money than digital. I put away a small sum as a contingency for exactly this scenario that I never used, and in fact, I had to go change that money to new bills because they became outdated. It's the same for my spare change; all the coins I accumulated over the years are now invalid. This could…

Are you suggesting that demonetization of existing coins and notes is a more common occurrence than internet outages?

I live in the US and have never worried about cash (paper or coins) not being accepted because they are "old."

I have many relatives in India. They all complained about this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_Indian_banknote_demonetis...

Re: Sweden’s Push to Get Rid of Cash Has Some Saying, ‘Not So Fast’

#26

Post by detaro »

mariefred wrote: post #10
SirLJ wrote: post #6

Cash = anonymity as credit card companies sell your data to Facebook and anyone else...

I understand anonymity from my wife, but do credit card companies really sell your data? and Swish which is operated by the banks ?

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-08-30/google-an... is an example

Re: Sweden’s Push to Get Rid of Cash Has Some Saying, ‘Not So Fast’

#28

Post by huhtenberg »

jeffrallen wrote: post #18

How will I send my daughter to the baker to buy the morning's bread with her 5 franc coin tucked in her pocket of there's no more cash?

Worry not.

She will come back with her 5 francs still tucked in her pocket, because it's Sweden. So you will be all set to send her again to the baker whenever you feel like.

Re: Sweden’s Push to Get Rid of Cash Has Some Saying, ‘Not So Fast’

#29

Post by majewsky »

lizknope wrote: post #25
ubernostrum wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you suggesting that demonetization of existing coins and notes is a more common occurrence than internet outages?

I live in the US and have never worried about cash (paper or coins) not being accepted because they are "old." I have many relatives in India. They all complained about this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_Indian_banknote_demonetis...

AFAIK the US does not ever invalidate old dollar bills. They're just withdrawn from circulation, i.e. banks return them to the Fed in exchange for new bills.

Re: Sweden’s Push to Get Rid of Cash Has Some Saying, ‘Not So Fast’

#30

Post by louisswiss »

jeffrallen wrote: post #18

How will I send my daughter to the baker to buy the morning's bread with her 5 franc coin tucked in her pocket of there's no more cash?

She’ll have to go exchange her francs for Euros or Krona first anyway. Unless you’re going to send her to Switzerland for the morning’s bread...
Post reply on HN