The Dark Side of A Cashless Society
The world is marching towards becoming a cashless society. It cannot be denied that there have been astounding changes that suggest that digital money will soon replace physical cash. A recent report by AT Kearney states that the first truly cashless society will be a reality in five years.
Cash has already been on the decline for some time with several countries slowing phasing out certain notes from existence — Sweden is its prime example
China’s central bank has been looking to bring in a full digital currency system
Central banks in other nations including South Korea, Canada, Russia, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Switzerland, as well as the European Union, have also been exploring the advantages of a cashless society.
The graph below shows the share of digital payments over the years in selected countries
Do we need a cashless society?
There is no escaping the fact that we are already on our way towards a cashless society. Which brings us to the question ‘do we need a cashless society’? Well, the answer is pretty simple — We’d like to believe that the less cash we carry around in our pockets and cash registers, the less attractive we become to muggers and thieves. This method allows more flexibility and lets consumers avoid queues along with PSPs, banks, and other financial institutions and market players encrypt all the data to keep it secure. But is this digital method secure enough as much as you think it is?
Removing Cash is a very dangerous thing.
A cashless society puts the society at risk of financial surveillance and control and may lead to authoritarianism or even dictatorship — sounds scary?
Let’s talk about voodoo and hoodoo of a Cashless Society.
- Everyone’s wealth will be in the control of the banks, while many businesses and other institutions charge an overhead fee for digital transactions.
- Access to your money is also dependent on a technology operating efficiently, with risks including outages and downtime.
- Your wealth will be vulnerable as well as your data. If your account is hacked into, all your savings could be drained with a click of a button.
- It maybe is a challenge for people without a bank account, aged or poor population not to know these high tech digital modes of payment.
- Through online data breaches, your wealth will be more vulnerable to fraud, scams, and hacking that could destroy your life savings in seconds.
- The government can always keep a check on how much you spend and where. You will be isolated in a system where there’s no freedom to store your wealth outside the system.
- There will be no privacy and only the risk of losing your wealth that you once owned.
The Cryptocurrency
Cryptocurrency is essentially an application that runs on blockchain. For example Bitcoin, Ethereum, and even CryptoKitties are run on this technology. It exists over a network and acts as a medium of exchange by using a cryptography method for securing the transactions.
Bitcoin, the first of the cryptocurrencies created by (unknown) Satoshi Nakamoto to help and ease the life of people but in reality, it is affecting badly on an individual’s privacy and freedom more than one can imagine.
This mindblowing article below proves that Bitcoin is another greatest scam!
Bitcoin Is The Second Greatest Scam In The History Of Mankind — CHAPTER[1]
Control Over Currency
Control over currency has many downstream impacts because governments control fiat currencies. They use central banks to issue or destroy money out of thin air. The central banks led by IMF want to trace and control every single penny that you own and this dream can only come true when the society is forced to become cashless.
The revolution is already happening. Institutional investors start to buy cryptocurrencies. With cash, they can’t trace your source but with no-cash (digital currency) they can trace every single penny that you own and where you spend that.
Before you raise your logic in favor of Bitcoin, you want to consider a few additional facts. Bitcoin was created by an anonymous computer programmer or programmers (there’s no consensus on this and identities are still unconfirmed) so you can’t just blindly trust in fiat currencies have value because governments say that they do.
Conclusion
Throughout history the upper class has deceived mankind through one simple tactic of deception i.e:
Problem (Created by them) → Reaction (Given by us) → Solution (Offered by them)
The world can already feel the impact of a cashless society in both positive and highly negative ways.
Miners have a lot to think about — if not for the planet, then for survival — for this is a fight that is coming.
