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Are you suggesting that demonetization of existing coins and notes is a more common occurrence than internet outages?

PavlovsCat 8y ago
That's how it read to me, too. I'm just in awe how stretchable humans can be.
lizknope 8y ago
I live in the US and have never worried about cash (paper or coins) not being accepted because they are "old." I have many relatives in India. They all complained about this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_Indian_banknote_demonetisation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_Indian_banknote_demonetis...
- majewsky 8y ago
  AFAIK the US does not ever invalidate old dollar bills. They're just withdrawn from circulation, i.e. banks return them to the Fed in exchange for new bills.
toxik 8y ago
I'm not suggesting, I am stating as fact.
- toxik 8y ago
  Sad that instead of having a discussion about this, my point of view gets downvoted. It's true. Where I live, cash has had more downtime than cards. That is just plain fact.
  - ubernostrum 8y ago
    The problem is that while it may be personally true for you in the country where you live over a short window of time, it's not generally true for the world. Internet outages are more common than demonetizations.
    - dahfizz 8y ago
      I think it really comes down to what you mean by 'internet outage'. Maybe if you're in a smaller town, the one ISP can have a service outage. Or a large hosting service like aws could have an outage. But those are always going to be limited in scope, both in time and users affected - as far as I know, there has never been a time where the entirety of the internet just went down. On the other hand, demonetizations do happen and they do not have the same limitation of scope - they affect every business and cash using citizen of a country.
    - toxik 8y ago
      I am Swedish. This article is about Sweden. It is true of Sweden.
  - lizknope 8y ago
    Okay, let's have a discussion. I said that I have never worried about this but my relatives in India did and I provided a link. Provide some links or describe what happened and then we can have a discussion.
PeterisP 8y ago
Yes, I've lived through (and seen in other countries) far more cases of demonetization (USA is a general exception in this regard) than prolonged large-scale (city-wide or larger) internet outages, which pretty much never happen - they're even more rare than prolonged large-scale electricity outages. In all kinds of countries the chance of demonetization is something like 5% per year i.e. on average every couple decades you have some sort of currency reform where everyone will have some issues with cash, I've lived through three such occurrences myself; and if you don't live in a place with really shitty infrastructure then the risk of your area (as opposed to some rural place where breakdowns affect a tiny number of people) having a total internet breakdown that's not resolved quickly is much lower than 5% per year.

That's how it read to me, too. I'm just in awe how stretchable humans can be.

I live in the US and have never worried about cash (paper or coins) not being accepted because they are "old." I have many relatives in India. They all complained about this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_Indian_banknote_demonetisation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_Indian_banknote_demonetis...

majewsky 8y ago
AFAIK the US does not ever invalidate old dollar bills. They're just withdrawn from circulation, i.e. banks return them to the Fed in exchange for new bills.

toxik 8y ago

I'm not suggesting, I am stating as fact.

toxik 8y ago
Sad that instead of having a discussion about this, my point of view gets downvoted. It's true. Where I live, cash has had more downtime than cards. That is just plain fact.
- ubernostrum 8y ago
  The problem is that while it may be personally true for you in the country where you live over a short window of time, it's not generally true for the world. Internet outages are more common than demonetizations.
  - dahfizz 8y ago
    I think it really comes down to what you mean by 'internet outage'. Maybe if you're in a smaller town, the one ISP can have a service outage. Or a large hosting service like aws could have an outage. But those are always going to be limited in scope, both in time and users affected - as far as I know, there has never been a time where the entirety of the internet just went down. On the other hand, demonetizations do happen and they do not have the same limitation of scope - they affect every business and cash using citizen of a country.
  - toxik 8y ago
    I am Swedish. This article is about Sweden. It is true of Sweden.
- lizknope 8y ago
  Okay, let's have a discussion. I said that I have never worried about this but my relatives in India did and I provided a link. Provide some links or describe what happened and then we can have a discussion.

PeterisP 8y ago

Yes, I've lived through (and seen in other countries) far more cases of demonetization (USA is a general exception in this regard) than prolonged large-scale (city-wide or larger) internet outages, which pretty much never happen - they're even more rare than prolonged large-scale electricity outages. In all kinds of countries the chance of demonetization is something like 5% per year i.e. on average every couple decades you have some sort of currency reform where everyone will have some issues with cash, I've lived through three such occurrences myself; and if you don't live in a place with really shitty infrastructure then the risk of your area (as opposed to some rural place where breakdowns affect a tiny number of people) having a total internet breakdown that's not resolved quickly is much lower than 5% per year.