Will you accept the cashless society?

[Dirty Big Yoke]

lol no you don't

[Conspiracy Nut]

well no but it helps.

I'm not impressed by bitcoin, the energy cost of running it is too high.

and it is the opposite of anonymous, its completely open and transparent.

[Dirty Big Yoke]

It only is energy intensive if you... mine it. You can easily convert money into bitcoins the normal way.

It being open and transparent is precisely why transactions can't be tracked, ironically enough.

[Conspiracy Nut]

not sure what you mean by 'can't be tracked' as it is an open ledger showing the amounts going between every wallet and all wallets are public. making loads of wallets doesn't make you anonymous.

[Dirty Big Yoke]

The wallets themselves are encrypted. This means even with public knowledge of transactions, you still can't find who did it.

[Conspiracy Nut]

https://techcrunch.com/2019/07/24/researchers-spotlight-the-lie-of-anonymous-data/

Researchers from two universities in Europe have published a method they say is able to correctly re-identify 99.98% of individuals in anonymized data sets with just 15 demographic attributes.

That means, 15 transactions could identify you (if you bought say cocoa-butter lotion, a purse large enough to double as a diaper bag, zinc and magnesium supplements and a bright blue rug, for example)

[Dirty Big Yoke]

Only if it's enough to profile a person by what is bought, not the actual transactions themselves.

[Conspiracy Nut]

Bitcoin is a very clever tech demo by a consortium of very clever people, possibly from large multinational banks. It has a defined lifespan, almost like it is here to change behaviour and self destruct, and the banks will implement a similar but less energy intensive blockchain that will be the new world currency.

[Dirty Big Yoke]

Banks are typically quite conservative and immune to change, so I don't see them implementing a cryptocurrency at all.

FinTech companies on the other hand...

[Minister Of Silly Walks]

An advantage of credit cards is that if you use a bit of common sense you can generally get your money back if you are ripped off. It's not widely publicised but you have a bunch of rights when you are paying by credit card.

Try doing that with cash.

Also if you don't want to be identified by demographic attributes, then don't give away your demographic attributes when buying stuff. Avoid purchases where it is a requirement.

[Dirty Big Yoke]

I have a small limit credit card purely for maintaining my credit rating. Fill it up, use it for basic stuff for the month, rinse and repeat.

[Jack]

For me, it can't happen quickly enough.

What difference would it make to a person who already operates without cash?

[Jack]

Are you one of those cashless society goons jumping on covid as an excuse to curtail cash or are you a cash carrying cat?

In the US it's estimated 3-5% of the population are undocumented, and 7-8% of citizens are unbanked. Cashless is a preferred personal choice, but can see how it could be used to discriminate against tens of millions of people, so don't support it.

[Minister Of Silly Walks]

For me, it can't happen quickly enough.

What difference would it make to a person who already operates without cash?

There are still a few businesses or purchase opportunities that still require cash.

Those will eventually move to cashless. Then you won't need to carry a bit of cash around "just in case".

I would oppose completely removing cash as a means of payment, for similar reasons to Jack plus a couple of others (including my right to make purchases without the knowledge of a bank and potentially the government or some hacker).

[odeon]

For me, it can't happen quickly enough.

What difference would it make to a person who already operates without cash?

Germany, for example, is years behind us and many places there still require cash. It's hugely annoying if you travel a lot.