211–220 of 498 posts
> [On] 23rd August 1994, the chaotic music duo and performance artists Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty burned £1m of notes behind a boathouse on the Scottish island of Jura. They are not alone in attempting to reduce money’s power… They literally increased the purchasing power of each remaining pound by doing so.
There are two fallacies I frequently feel the need to debunk in this discussion. - Cash is anonymous - Cash is an "old" or "low" technology. When a serious crime is committed you might be surprised how much the police can do to trace cash. Serial numbers in and out of ATMs and shops are tracked, and frequently your face is captured by cameras in stores, ATMs and vending machines. Modern cash is high technology . Look…
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.
I'm in Sweden, a strong contender for the most cashless country, and I don't know what the banknotes look like. They were changed some 5 or 6 years ago and I haven't paid with or even withdrawn cash since then. For illustration, cash is generally not accepted outside of grocery stores and some chains. For a typical restaurant, coffee shop or takeaway there's very little chance they take cash. Street vendors may take…
What would you do in case of a emergency or natural distaster? Basically a situation where any of the following is not available for any period of time: power, network, financial infrastructure, access to digital devices.
1. On personal level: Maybe your wallet and phone was stolen
2. Region: Power/Network is down
3. National level: the whole infrastructure is down or under attack
Have you been in such situation or thought about it?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
>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. But how do you get a regular re-supply of your cash to pay the places that take cash? For me, I would have to make a regular trips to the bank ATM machine to withdraw cash. That type of errand is inconvenient which is why I haven't done that in 15 years. It's been so long that I don'…
How horrible, a slight inconvenience! I mean, sorry for the sass, but when did it become acceptable to base an argument on slight inconveniences? Being alive is slightly inconvenient most of the time.
It's not about avoiding any and all inconveniences.
My comment was based on gp's framing of the situation as "being required to do ". He wrote that a cashless businesses was not ideal because it means "being required to bring my phone / debit card with me".
Ok, I can accept that inconvenience exists but then the alternative to "hassle of debit card" is just substituted with "hassle of being required to regularly re-supply the inventory of cash on hand".
Substituting with "debit card cashless" with "visit ATMs and carry wad of cash" didn't seem like a slam dunk tradeoff. Another issue I remember with cash is getting a stack of $20 bills from the ATM and then trying to spend it but the business' cash drawer doesn't have the appropriate inventory of small denomination bills to give back the correct change. (Even if the ATM can also spit out smaller $10s or $5s, they can often run out which then leaves only the larger $20 bills left for dispensing.) The credit-card transactions eliminate that issue because you just pay the exact amount.
Sure, if transactions privacy is the #1 concern, then one will happily withdraw cash and deal with its inconveniences. But privacy wasn't in the gp's comment so I just interpreted it at face value.
States and banks benefit by printing this tool for you, because in return they control the movement of money when it comes back to them, and its value.
But with digital currency, they've hit the jackpot, realizing that they can have their cake and eat it too: they can control the movement of money, its value and even tax it on a per-transaction basis. And without any advantage other than saving space in your pocket.
For the first time I realized that I'm a slave to my bank. They can just freeze my money just like that.
In a fully cashless system you'd be a complete slave to the system.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is preposterous. Bitcoin is more traceable, more transparent and more censorship prone than every form of currency conveyance we know of including cash, diamonds, physical gold, etc… The fact that’s 2024 and some people still believe Bitcoin enables privacy just goes to show how crypto enthusiasts are candy brained fanatics.
Why is this "preposterous"? I never mentioned privacy, and certainly never claimed bitcoin provides it. Also, bitcoin never claimed to enable privacy (contrary to monero and zcash). All it ever claimed was to be pseudonymous. It has been crystal clear to anyone in the field that "if people can link your addresses to your person, they know all your transactions". In fact, this has often been presented as a feature (th…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I moved to Sweden ~2.5 years ago and I can count the number of times I've used cash on one hand. It's definitely less private, but the convenience is unmatched. Honestly, I don't even know what the modern Swedish notes look like now!
> but the convenience is unmatched I've actually timed this. It takes ~8 seconds to fish out the card, insert it, wait for approval, and replace it in the wallet. Roughly similar time frame for unlocking your phone and approving the NFC transaction. It takes ~15 seconds to fish out a C-note, insert it into the self-checkout bill accepter, retrieve the change, and put the change into my wallet. Delta of 7 seconds. Let…
I assume it is not the case in Sweden or most of Europe. Here in Belgium, the fees are maximum 5 cent or 0,2% whichever is lowest (apparently, to be lowered to 0,1%).
It's a bit higher in France at 0,2% + up to 1% or so bank fees depending on the shop's bank, but that's still lower than anything I'm reading in this thread.
So at least here in Belgium it's cheaper for me to use a card, according to your calculation. Which doesn't take into account what I must do with the change, as I can't always just use a new note and sometimes I'll have to count and use that change. I also have to go out of my way to find an ATM.
My bank freezed my access to my debit card and online bank recently, without a reason. They just sent me a message that I should visit the branch in person. Not going to happen. Fortunately I could open a new bank account online and had some spare cash too. For the first time I realized that I'm a slave to my bank. They can just freeze my money just like that. In a fully cashless system you'd be a complete slave to t…
My bank freezed my access to my debit card and online bank recently, without a reason. They just sent me a message that I should visit the branch in person. Not going to happen. Fortunately I could open a new bank account online and had some spare cash too. For the first time I realized that I'm a slave to my bank. They can just freeze my money just like that. In a fully cashless system you'd be a complete slave to t…