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The problem with a cashless society is that if all payments are tracked or controlled by a third party, it's impossible to make black market transactions or gre

The problem with a cashless society is that if all payments are tracked or controlled by a third party, it's impossible to make black market transactions or grey market transactions. The line between legal and illegal keeps changing, as attitudes in society changes, but not allowing people to vote with their wallets which way society should go is an incredibly bad idea. How could you run a gay club in a cashless country where it is illegal to be gay? How could you buy marijuana in a cashless state where the legality of it is undefined? How can you donate to wikileaks when no US-based payment provider wants to facilitate payments to it? The argument against cash is exactly the same as people not caring about their web browsing history being accessible to others, and saying 'they have nothing to hide'. Well, one day you might have something to hide. For good reasons or bad reasons or whatever, and that's when privacy is a good thing. That's when anonymous cash is a good thing.

mgc092 10y ago
Agreed. Cash is key to privacy and to prevent totalitarian states from doing even more mass surveillance, controlling every single thing we buy.
happynewyear 10y ago
> The problem with a cashless society is that if all payments are tracked or controlled by a third party Problem for you but imho one of the key motivations for getting rid of cash. Our civil liberties are increasingly dependent on the "good will" of governments. Globally they play-act their conflicts, but every single one of them agrees that their citizens need to be monitored 24/7. Digital cash in combination with IoT monitoring of infrastructure such as utility metrics, and your friendly big-brother in your mobile device likely will make it extremely difficult for a bartering economy/black-market to emerge as well. A global Permanent Establishment™ is being constructed right in front of us but alas we're all distracted by phony spats between geopolitical actors who are all (and their families as you can see) stakeholders in this Permanent Establishment™.
petre 10y ago
We'll just use other's cash for cash transactions: US dollars. It's at least very difficult for the US to eliminate the dollar because it's used in international trade and almost everyone also has it in cash. Which also means the currency in a cashless society will deprecate against the dollar if it loses confidence. Just take a look at Venezuela - people are using USD as their currency is worthless.

mgc092 10y ago

Agreed. Cash is key to privacy and to prevent totalitarian states from doing even more mass surveillance, controlling every single thing we buy.

happynewyear 10y ago

> The problem with a cashless society is that if all payments are tracked or controlled by a third party Problem for you but imho one of the key motivations for getting rid of cash. Our civil liberties are increasingly dependent on the "good will" of governments. Globally they play-act their conflicts, but every single one of them agrees that their citizens need to be monitored 24/7. Digital cash in combination with IoT monitoring of infrastructure such as utility metrics, and your friendly big-brother in your mobile device likely will make it extremely difficult for a bartering economy/black-market to emerge as well. A global Permanent Establishment™ is being constructed right in front of us but alas we're all distracted by phony spats between geopolitical actors who are all (and their families as you can see) stakeholders in this Permanent Establishment™.

petre 10y ago

We'll just use other's cash for cash transactions: US dollars. It's at least very difficult for the US to eliminate the dollar because it's used in international trade and almost everyone also has it in cash. Which also means the currency in a cashless society will deprecate against the dollar if it loses confidence. Just take a look at Venezuela - people are using USD as their currency is worthless.