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Where may I read about anything supporting your statement "cash is primarily used for illegal activities"? I highly doubt that this is the case, unless there ar

Where may I read about anything supporting your statement "cash is primarily used for illegal activities"? I highly doubt that this is the case, unless there are more illegal activities out there than legal ones.

sigmoid10 1y ago
Here for example: https://www.europol.europa.eu/media-press/newsroom/news/cash-still-king-criminals-prefer-cash-for-money-laundering https://www.europol.europa.eu/media-press/newsroom/news/cash...
9dev 1y ago
I would assume the metric isn’t number of transactions, but total transaction value. It’s really uncommon to pay for really expensive things (e.g., houses, cars, boats) in cash, and doing so almost always means that the duffel bag of cash came from shady means.
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
- johnisgood 1y ago
  OK, but look at the original statement, that cash is mainly used for illegal activities. I do not think that is true. Now, check this out: > Cash was the most frequently used payment method at the POS in the euro area and was used in 52% (59%) of transactions, but the share of cash payments has declined. > Cash was the most frequently used payment method for small-value payments at the POS, in line with previous surveys. For payments over €50, cards were the most frequently used payment method. > Cash was the dominant means of payment in P2P transactions, accounting for 41% of such payments. Cards and mobile apps were used for 33%, credit transfers for 9% and instant payments for 6% of P2P transactions. https://www.ecb.europa.eu/stats/ecb_surveys/space/html/ecb.space2024~19d46f0f17.en.html https://www.ecb.europa.eu/stats/ecb_surveys/space/html/ecb.s... This is to be expected though: > The most frequently used instrument for online payments was cards, representing 48% (51%) of transactions. The share of e-payment solutions, i.e. payment wallets and mobile apps, was 29% (26%). > The large majority of recurring payments were made using direct debit, with credit transfers ranking in second place. Regarding privacy: > A majority of euro area consumers (58%) said they were concerned about their privacy when performing digital payments or other banking activities. I think they genuinely care about privacy and are not thugs.
  - vladms 1y ago
    Not sure if "mainly" means in terms of total value, number of transactions or people using it. If I would be to guess it would be total value. Now, these guys might be biased, but to quote: "The EUR 500 note alone accounts for over 30% of the value of all banknotes in circulation (1)." (https://www.europol.europa.eu/media-press/newsroom/news/cash-still-king-criminals-prefer-cash-for-money-laundering https://www.europol.europa.eu/media-press/newsroom/news/cash...). That would suggest to me that at least 30% of the value of cash is used for "shady" stuff (I mean I don't know anybody that would use 500 eur bills). The fact that cash would be used mostly for illegal activities by value (I don't know if it is really the case), does not imply that "people that use cash use if for illegal activities".
    - johnisgood 1y ago
      I do not pretend that I know either, to be honest. That said, there is "For payments over €50, cards were the most frequently used payment method.", which means they primarily use cash below 50 EUR, and you cannot do much illegal purchases with 50 EUR, it is such a small amount.
bee_rider 1y ago
Technically they said, > And the idea that physical money primarily aids social fraud, money laundering and other illegal activities is pretty well established. Another plausible reading could be that this is just a widely believed incorrect thing (or most exactly, they are just saying it is widely believed, and not anything about the underlying truthfulness of the belief). This seems easy for somebody to observe about the society around them (although I bet it is a regional thing, or something like that) and less likely for there to be hard data on. Perception is also more likely than actual facts to drive behavior, right? > They even killed the 500€ bank note, because it was almost exclusively used by criminals and most normal people never even touched one, much less used one for legit transactions. This, on the other hand, seems like a specific action taken by the government to solve a specific problem, so I’d expect it to be well documented…

sigmoid10 1y ago

Here for example: https://www.europol.europa.eu/media-press/newsroom/news/cash-still-king-criminals-prefer-cash-for-money-laundering https://www.europol.europa.eu/media-press/newsroom/news/cash...

9dev 1y ago

I would assume the metric isn’t number of transactions, but total transaction value. It’s really uncommon to pay for really expensive things (e.g., houses, cars, boats) in cash, and doing so almost always means that the duffel bag of cash came from shady means.

deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
johnisgood 1y ago
OK, but look at the original statement, that cash is mainly used for illegal activities. I do not think that is true. Now, check this out: > Cash was the most frequently used payment method at the POS in the euro area and was used in 52% (59%) of transactions, but the share of cash payments has declined. > Cash was the most frequently used payment method for small-value payments at the POS, in line with previous surveys. For payments over €50, cards were the most frequently used payment method. > Cash was the dominant means of payment in P2P transactions, accounting for 41% of such payments. Cards and mobile apps were used for 33%, credit transfers for 9% and instant payments for 6% of P2P transactions. https://www.ecb.europa.eu/stats/ecb_surveys/space/html/ecb.space2024~19d46f0f17.en.html https://www.ecb.europa.eu/stats/ecb_surveys/space/html/ecb.s... This is to be expected though: > The most frequently used instrument for online payments was cards, representing 48% (51%) of transactions. The share of e-payment solutions, i.e. payment wallets and mobile apps, was 29% (26%). > The large majority of recurring payments were made using direct debit, with credit transfers ranking in second place. Regarding privacy: > A majority of euro area consumers (58%) said they were concerned about their privacy when performing digital payments or other banking activities. I think they genuinely care about privacy and are not thugs.
- vladms 1y ago
  Not sure if "mainly" means in terms of total value, number of transactions or people using it. If I would be to guess it would be total value. Now, these guys might be biased, but to quote: "The EUR 500 note alone accounts for over 30% of the value of all banknotes in circulation (1)." (https://www.europol.europa.eu/media-press/newsroom/news/cash-still-king-criminals-prefer-cash-for-money-laundering https://www.europol.europa.eu/media-press/newsroom/news/cash...). That would suggest to me that at least 30% of the value of cash is used for "shady" stuff (I mean I don't know anybody that would use 500 eur bills). The fact that cash would be used mostly for illegal activities by value (I don't know if it is really the case), does not imply that "people that use cash use if for illegal activities".
  - johnisgood 1y ago
    I do not pretend that I know either, to be honest. That said, there is "For payments over €50, cards were the most frequently used payment method.", which means they primarily use cash below 50 EUR, and you cannot do much illegal purchases with 50 EUR, it is such a small amount.

bee_rider 1y ago

Technically they said, > And the idea that physical money primarily aids social fraud, money laundering and other illegal activities is pretty well established. Another plausible reading could be that this is just a widely believed incorrect thing (or most exactly, they are just saying it is widely believed, and not anything about the underlying truthfulness of the belief). This seems easy for somebody to observe about the society around them (although I bet it is a regional thing, or something like that) and less likely for there to be hard data on. Perception is also more likely than actual facts to drive behavior, right? > They even killed the 500€ bank note, because it was almost exclusively used by criminals and most normal people never even touched one, much less used one for legit transactions. This, on the other hand, seems like a specific action taken by the government to solve a specific problem, so I’d expect it to be well documented…