I don't think people care. They don't really care about traceability/anonymity. By now basically everybody is happy to buy (almost) anything with their card. A

I don't think people care. They don't really care about traceability/anonymity. By now basically everybody is happy to buy (almost) anything with their card. Also, you almost never need to do an offline transaction. (I'm not 100% sure, but IIRC that is a feature of at least some of those digital cash solutions based on blind signatures.) And if you can do prompt online transactions and you don't care much about privacy (because you trust the banks) then you don't need digital cash. BTC and all the other blockchain bases solutions are speculative assets. They hold the promise of creating value out of nothing. So it's a strong motivation for at least some of the developers and most of the adopters. Digital cash, on the other hand, would be issued by banks, so no one could earn a profit from holding them (well, compared to holding the actual currency on their account). Though, in theory digital cash could be issued by its developers (just as blockchain based ones), but since it would sound new and obscure, people wouldn't trust it. (BTC and the blockchain took quite a few years too.)