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Physical cash is dying–and you don't need to be a conspiracist to worry

prospectmagazine.co.uk

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Re: Physical cash is dying–and you don't need to be a conspiracist to worry

#161

Post by croes »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #112
venusenvy47 wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would it raise the value of the currency if the central bank didn't know this stash was destroyed? It seems like this pile of cash would still be considered to be "in circulation" until the central bank declared it to not be.

The central bank's knowledge isn't relevant in any way. The value of the currency goes up because the willingness of people to spend it went down. You can't spend money that doesn't exist, so this effect will occur regardless of anyone's knowledge of anything.

By your logic the currency goes up when the poor get poorer

Re: Physical cash is dying–and you don't need to be a conspiracist to worry

#162

Post by 34679 »

Xplune13 wrote: post #44
Alifatisk wrote: post #33

I believe once we go fully cashless, we'll regret it and wish we could go back. I can barely enjoy a full day without being required to bring my phone / debit card with me because the register does not accept cash.

That's a new one. Genuine question, why do you prefer using cash instead of using a phone or card?

Cash is free and easy. Electronic payments add cost and complexity that sometimes results in failure.

Re: Physical cash is dying–and you don't need to be a conspiracist to worry

#163

Post by asystole »

berkes wrote: post #154
asystole wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bitcoin is getting better all the time. There are more people focusing purely on payments in the bitcoin space than you think. The lightning network is halfway usable now, and federated mint type systems (like cashu[1]) are very promising. [1]: https://docs.cashu.space

Bitcoin is still "improving", as tech. I know. But the community at large, is still crap. Rugpulls, pyramid schemes, bad management, misleading marketing and so on, are more common than not. It's easier to get scammed or grifted than to find a good, solid provider of a service. That's even more true for the cryptocurrency world at large, but even for the "niche" of bitcoin(maximalists) this goes.

The "crypto" world is 99% scams and 1% misguided nonsense, I agree. Wrt bitcoin, there are a lot of extremely talented, honest and trustworthy people working on both the technical side and providing services. Look at the projects and people sponsored by Opensats [1] for some good examples.

I know many people will reflexively disagree with the notion that the bitcoin world isn't entirely made up of bros and scammers.

[1]: https://opensats.org/projects

Re: Physical cash is dying–and you don't need to be a conspiracist to worry

#164

Post by jason-phillips »

gambiting wrote: post #20
jason-phillips wrote: post #2

I live an hour or so outside of Austin and people still primarily write checks as that's the only acceptable payment method, along with cash. My new wife said, "Wait, why not just use Stripe? I'll tell them." I had to explain to her that one does not simply pull forward a society thirty years into the future. There is an incredible amount of cultural inertia to overcome. So I carry a lot of cash out here.

Aren't cheques even worse for privacy though? Not only your bank knows exactly who you paid and how much, the seller also now has your actual name since it's just written on the cheque - at least when paying by card they get nothing. Maybe I'm getting it wrong - cheques are something I've only seen in films, in my country no bank accepts them since 2020 anymore, they've been completely phased out.

Here - that being outside of Austin in Texas - I think the root causes for this behavior lie with tax cheats and ineptitude.

Re: Physical cash is dying–and you don't need to be a conspiracist to worry

#165

Post by thaumasiotes »

croes wrote: post #161
thaumasiotes wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The central bank's knowledge isn't relevant in any way. The value of the currency goes up because the willingness of people to spend it went down. You can't spend money that doesn't exist, so this effect will occur regardless of anyone's knowledge of anything.

By your logic the currency goes up when the poor get poorer

Yes, if a million poor people lose $1 each, that has the same effect as one guy losing $1 million.

Re: Physical cash is dying–and you don't need to be a conspiracist to worry

#166

Post by beAbU »

happytiger wrote: post #148

Not using cash means someone gets a cut of a processing fee. Every time, with almost no exceptions. I’m not down to have rent seeking companies taking a slice of my hard earned money just so I don’t have to manage a few pieces of paper. You’re generally paying 3-4 percent of every transaction now, as that’s pretty standard for debit cards on businesses, and it doesn’t matter if it’s charged to the card holder or the…

And yet, when last did you get a 3-4% discount when paying cash? I remember that from the 90s and 00s.

In fact, I have seen some small places ask a 3-4% surcharge for cash payments, because banks don't process cash for free any more.

Re: Physical cash is dying–and you don't need to be a conspiracist to worry

#167

Post by moooo99 »

happytiger wrote: post #148

Not using cash means someone gets a cut of a processing fee. Every time, with almost no exceptions. I’m not down to have rent seeking companies taking a slice of my hard earned money just so I don’t have to manage a few pieces of paper. You’re generally paying 3-4 percent of every transaction now, as that’s pretty standard for debit cards on businesses, and it doesn’t matter if it’s charged to the card holder or the…

> I’m not down to have rent seeking companies taking a slice of my hard earned money just so I don’t have to manage a few pieces of paper.

You’re pretending as if there weren’t any costs associated with handling cash. There’s almost always a handling fee if you want to put the cash into an account, which you will need to do if you want to pay people that are somewhere else than you are. If you have larger quantities of cash, you’ll also have to pay for safe transportation of the funds. If you make an honest comparison

Re: Physical cash is dying–and you don't need to be a conspiracist to worry

#168

Post by [deleted] »

ghaff wrote: post #115
forinti wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The ATMs I use use the least number of bills for the amount you asked. If they have lower denominations, I sometimes make two withdrawals in order to avoid the larger bills.

I don't think I've ever seen an ATM in the US spit out larger than $20s which is basically the largest denomination you can count on a store taking even though there are $50s and $100s in general circulation. (Which has essentially been the case for many decades.)

[deleted]

Re: Physical cash is dying–and you don't need to be a conspiracist to worry

#169

Post by jason-phillips »

ta1243 wrote: post #55
gambiting wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aren't cheques even worse for privacy though? Not only your bank knows exactly who you paid and how much, the seller also now has your actual name since it's just written on the cheque - at least when paying by card they get nothing. Maybe I'm getting it wrong - cheques are something I've only seen in films, in my country no bank accepts them since 2020 anymore, they've been completely phased out.

I was given a chequebook when I opened my current bank account in 2004, I've written 8, all of them in the first 10 years.

Same, until I moved to a rural area. I did a lot of research about this place but didn't discover the pervasiveness of the cash society until I moved here.

Re: Physical cash is dying–and you don't need to be a conspiracist to worry

#170

Post by varjag »

madsbuch wrote: post #11

I Denmark we are removing the 1000kr bill as of May 2025. from then on the highest bill. is 500kr which is roughly equal to 80 usd. Denmark Is the most cashless society I have yet experiences (and I have been traveling a fair bit). This comes with pros and cons. and I think the reason why it works is because of an incredibly high social trust.

Traveling from Norway 10-15 years ago Denmark was fairly backwards when it came to electronic payments.
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