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> I don't like not being able to participate in society when the bank has a technical problem or my credit card company thinks I am committing fraud. Now imagi

> I don't like not being able to participate in society when the bank has a technical problem or my credit card company thinks I am committing fraud. Now imagine when you are too poor to have a bank account, your credit history prevents you from getting a credit card in the first place, or you don't have a permanent address to associate with a digital payment card. A cashless society is one that will only further exclude those on the lowest rungs of the socioeconomic ladder: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/cashless-society-poor-exclusion_n_5a857082e4b0ab6daf463c4a https://www.huffpost.com/entry/cashless-society-poor-exclusi... It is not something to strive for.

Barrin92 6y ago
depends on what the replacement for cash is. If it's private credit cards that lock the marginalised out then yes. If It's some frictionless digital cash replacement like a few of the central bank currencies that have been floating around I'd welcome it. Seeing how long it took for people to receive covid relief funds, if you could just distribute money to everyone in a country instantly it'd be a step up.
- CarelessExpert 6y ago
  > If It's some frictionless digital cash replacement like a few of the central bank currencies that have been floating around I'd welcome it. And how will you get them to people sleeping rough? How will you deal with their being stolen? How will you deal with reissuing them? And that's just the first obvious questions that spring to mind.
  - Barrin92 6y ago
    even homeless people these days often have a smartphone. (and I have for a while argued that we should give every person without a residence one so they have access to basic digital services). It's for sure easier than to bring bank services to them. Also, stealing digital money is much harder than stealing cash, which is very easy to steal. There's obviously problems with this, mostly revolving around identity, but that's true for all forms of banking. But getting someone a phone and an account and being able to trivially send them money is pretty safe and realistic to set up.

Barrin92 6y ago

depends on what the replacement for cash is. If it's private credit cards that lock the marginalised out then yes. If It's some frictionless digital cash replacement like a few of the central bank currencies that have been floating around I'd welcome it. Seeing how long it took for people to receive covid relief funds, if you could just distribute money to everyone in a country instantly it'd be a step up.

CarelessExpert 6y ago
> If It's some frictionless digital cash replacement like a few of the central bank currencies that have been floating around I'd welcome it. And how will you get them to people sleeping rough? How will you deal with their being stolen? How will you deal with reissuing them? And that's just the first obvious questions that spring to mind.
- Barrin92 6y ago
  even homeless people these days often have a smartphone. (and I have for a while argued that we should give every person without a residence one so they have access to basic digital services). It's for sure easier than to bring bank services to them. Also, stealing digital money is much harder than stealing cash, which is very easy to steal. There's obviously problems with this, mostly revolving around identity, but that's true for all forms of banking. But getting someone a phone and an account and being able to trivially send them money is pretty safe and realistic to set up.