The benefits and drawbacks of a cashless society

[Aaron Hastings]

There's a discussion on the Derek Mooney radio show at the moment (almost over) regarding the benefits of a cashless society. One of the biggest benefits mentioned is "increased security" as people won't be carrying cash on their person. Surely this only opens a whole 'nother Pandora's Box of security issues, such as RFID snooping of contactless cards.

What are your thoughts on the notion of a cashless society?

Aaron

[Carles Sentis]

completely unavoidable on the long run. I just hope that as we slowly move towards a cashless society, that the security issues you are talking about are put in place...

Its just like finding bugs on a piece of code really... Code it, test it, try it, fix it, .. on and on and on...

[Domhnall Walsh]

The idea that bearer instruments would no longer be available is cause for serious concern. If things do go wrong with our communications infrastructure, the absence of cash could cause chaos to set in sooner.

It'd also mean that every transaction could be monitored, and potentially blocked, neither of which are good things. That's without mentioning potential for taxation. Add the fun of clerical errors into the mix and things could get really hairy if things go wrong.

[Carles Sentis]

Good points.. But people may also start paying with things such as bitcoin.. As we move more and more towards a network society and our phones and other devices are getting smarter, such an idea of using other economies other than the ones regualted by the goverment is not so far fetched.. Bitcoin is pretty young still but it has the potential of a bright future

[Domhnall Walsh]

Bitcoin won't gain acceptance as it's not backed by a national  government. At least not in the short to medium term.

[Mark Grealish]

Short version: Unless we are in a truly post-scarcity society (à la the Culture) human interaction is going to require some form of lubricating medium. Sure we can throw out cash, but something else will come in to replace it, and then we're back with cash again. 

Or are we talking about just physical cash?

[Richard Conroy]

In the UK electronic payment is the norm, use of cash is the exception.

Of course this makes the already slovenly Chain/Franchise Pub staff even slower at processing orders than they already are.

Theory: If cash disappears from society, Irish Guinness drinkers will re-issue a print currency. Entire financial markets will arise out of the drinking capacity of Irish Black-Stuff Consumers

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[Domhnall Walsh]

Barter evolved into cash; take cash away and barter will resurface. Eventually someone will try to impose some sort of order on the bartering, and hey presto! Cash again. As Mark has said.

[Nicola Di Marzo]

cashless society could solve some problems but it could create others more related to technology and security.
Like discussion about cloud, if i'd give total control of my important stuff to someone, i would like to know exactly who and how this thing could have been done.
i think the questions are:
Can we trust of our society in the way like it is now?
Can we trust google and facebook when we aren't sure where our data go and how they're treated ?

-- 
"Happiness only real when shared"
C. J. McCandless

[Duncan Thomas]

Un-backed barter currencies are already appearing in Greece... certain
sectors need an untraceable easily exchangeable promissory note, and
the only reason we use government ones now is because they are the
most reliably exchanged. In parts of south america, us dollars are far
more welcome than the local currency precisely because the reliability
of value of the local currency is poor.

--
Duncan Thomas

[Aaron Hastings]

I think I experienced this when I was in Turkey eight years ago. The local vendors were more than happy to accept Euros from tourists, often ahead of their own currency, the Lira.