Looks like the era of cash, who has in the throne for a really long time, is going to be over much sooner than we think. We can see that today’s trends are relying on payment cards and apps, who are taking the primary spot. So, it doesn’t come as a surprise that central banks are looking for a way to benefit from this whole situation. We can presume that payment methods we are used to, are going to be changed in the nearest possible future.
With the payment cards like MasterCard and Visa increasing their reach, we can see that the situation we are heading to is going to have two kings of the monetary world. We are talking about credit cards and digital currencies. The reason is we can see that more and more countries will adopt one of these two as a primary paying method.
It can be seen that credit card payments have an advantage when compared to digital currencies. However, we wouldn’t be so sure to make predictions since cryptos make their way pretty slowly, but surely. The only country in the world that made cryptos completely legal, and tax-free until 2024, is Belarus. This is just the beginning of a trend that will surely spread all over the world in the next couple of years.
People were skeptical about the whole concept of cryptos in the beginning, to the unusual way of their creation. However, more and more people actually were sure that this is a payment method that they can actually use to their benefit. If you are looking for benefits of cryptocurrencies, be sure to take a look at itechpost.com. So, looks like cash doesn’t have too much time left. Let us see what is the current situation between cash and digital coins and what we can expect in the future.
The Privacy
The question of privacy is one of the most important ones in this day and age. The reason is, with people getting online much more than in any situation before, we can see that almost everywhere you register yourself, you need to post some of your personal data. This is not something most people like. We can see that just typing our full name in Google can provide us with some of our personal data. This is something that raised a lot of concern in the last couple of years.
So, the main advantage of digital currencies is that you are completely anonymous when making a transaction, which is completely different from any central bank transaction. Also, if you were to make a transaction from your credit card, you need to inject some cash into your account in order to do this. Digital currencies are working on a completely different level. When you mine or receive a transaction in, let’s say, BTC, you will be able to move your coins in a matter of seconds. Plus, the transaction is over in a matter of seconds.
However, it should be said that cash provides us with ultimate privacy. It looks like that the decision that will influence the removal of cash and introducing digital currencies will make people lose all of their anonymity. Don’t get us wrong, its not that you are not anonymous while making crypto transactions. It’s known for a fact that cash is the ultimate anonymity. The major reason for this statement is, the chances are that central banks if they introduce digital currencies as the primary method of payment, will use tracking features. The same as they use with credit cards.
The World Without Cash
We can see that countless articles, who talked about the transition from cash to crypto, were already published. So, we can have a basic idea about how that will look like. However, the real question is how will all of that influence our lives on the basic level. We already know that central banks and governments will make a move that will mean every person will have to use digital currencies. But, did we think about the usual people.
We can see that world without cash is overhyped in the last two decades. Especially with millennials. Disrupting the world as we know it in order to introduce digital money, is it really worth it? Well, the first and foremost thing we are certain many don’t understand is that this world we are about to create is not completely to our benefit.
We can ask ourselves, are we made to believe that this is the future and avoiding it is something we cannot do? All of these are the question that we need to get answers first before we can decide for our banking systems to go in a completely different way than the one it is now.
How Close Are We to This World?
The question of all questions is, how close we are to the world without cash? The reason this is a highly important question is that people don’t have a full glimpse of what these changes will mean and some answers are required before the complete shift. We can see that some of the highest-developed countries like Korea, Sweden, Finland, the US, Netherlands, and the UK have the highest percentage of cashless transactions.
Not only that these are the countries that will do the actual shift first, it looks like Europe and North America are two regions where we can expect this trend to start. South Korea has an exceptional 86% of transactions without cash, Sweden, and Finland 80%. These percentages provide us with crucial information. Since they are so high, we can expect this trend to be adapted much sooner than we think. However, the actual year is not known.
There are countless questions that can be made towards the situation with cash and digital coins. However, we truly feel the most important ones are these two we’ve mentioned in this article of ours. Looks like we are looking towards one hell of a ride in the next decade when it comes to finances. Who knows what other trends can emerge in the next couple of years, right? The verdict is that cash should remain as important as it is now until we get all the answers about other concepts.
