Cashless Economy

Cash still accounts for a significant share of payment transactions in most advanced economies (Bagnall et al. 2016). However, it is a widely held presumption that the recent innovations of contactless, mobile and instant payments will accelerate the move to a cashless society. This would pose challenges to central banks who have a mandate to guarantee a safe, efficient and broadly accessible payment system. To counterbalance ongoing payment innovations and an expected strong decline in cash demand – as has been observed e.g. in Sweden – many central banks are now contemplating the...

When we think about ecology and reducing our carbon footprint, suppressing cash might seem like a good idea: no trees cut, no paper used, no transportation and so on. Yet, a closer look at cashless payment means shows that using cash actually produces less carbon emissions. Read more

Cashless payments are on the rise, and children have less opportunity to hold physical money in their hands. Banks issue cards for children, and you can easily find an application to track your kid’s payments on AppStore or Google Play. However, electronic piggy banks come at a cost. Cashless payments affect how children perceive the source of income and what they think about savings. They also deprive kids of important communication experiences, and these effects may have an impact in the future. Read more

Economist John Howland Cochrane addressed the question of new cryptocurrencies, cashless societies and the future of tax evasion. At the heart of his concerns, lies the question of privacy. Governments, to contain tax evasion, are favorable to the war on cash, and considering using a blockchain-currency of their own. To be fair, it was initially the banking sector’s idea, but governments had similar and compatible interests in acquiring more economic visibility - something cash does not provide. Whichever the medium used, the idea is to make all payments appear on radars of banks and the...

We often hear about sustainable development, and almost every industry tries to contribute to a better future, including the sphere of non-cash payments. However, in reality it turns out that the entire industry does more harm than good, and does not correspond, but rather goes against the goals of sustainable development. On the other hand, convenient paper money is more environmentally friendly, and can be an excellent alternative for those who want to take care of the environment. Read more

The John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law Volume 14 - Issue 2 Journal of Computer & Information Law

"My own research on the persistence of Delhi’s informal recycling economy shows just how important cash is to low-income laborers", says Dana Kornberg, Ph.D. Candidate in Sociology at the University of Michigan. (...) "If such a future exists, it is still a long way off, at least in India. According to a 2014 study, just 10 percent of Indians over 15 had ever made a digital payment. And in countries where a large share of transactions are already done digitally, there’s evidence that this does not serve the poor well." Read more