this post was submitted on 04 Jul 2025
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Cash, at least in europe. In my opinion that decision would mark one of the most epic political fails in recent history but I fear, that's what's going to happen.
Why would it be a failure? I loved never having to carry anything but a phone in China.
Because iso/power failures, lost/broken devices, let alone the government doesn't need to know every transaction, the inability to gift a displaced person $20, or money in a birthday card.
Wechat and Alipay do all that except the not keeping a record of transactions. There's tons of food places where the entire payment system is just a printed QR code and they just tell you how much to pay so there's nothing that can go down except the phone network and wifi.
You can also just give people money, which seems like it shouldn't work with a credit card because it's technically a cash advance. There's been a dozen times where a store that requires everything go through an app so they can make you click through 3 menus advertising discounts if you buy more items wouldn't work because I didn't have a Chinese number or something, and the employee would put in the order, then I'd give their personal account the money.
I don't have access to those. I'm in the Evil Empire.
Oh yeah, no in America or Europe, if everyone used an app to do basic functions like buying food, it would be exploited to make everything worse, no shot that it would be regulated in a way that favors the people rather than the banks.
There are still power and internet outages possible, climate disasters aren't going to only hit those who deserve it.
Sure, nothing is lower tech than locked box with a slot in it, except maybe accepting IOUs, but most businesses that handle cash today still go down if power goes out, cell service is a little more reliable though.
I'm not sure how the technology works there, but here, very few businesses even have the old manual card machine that uses carbon copies. I've learned to keep a small amount of cash. Plus it's hot and sticky here, so the squatter that hangs out at the corner shop a few miles away -- seldom asks for anything, but if I ask them, they will request a cold soda and occasionally a hot dog
I've never even seen a manual card reader machine. How does it know if a card is declined?
It doesn't. But the bank fees, merchant fees make it cost prohibitive to overdraft, not to mention criminal charges, jail, and fines if you don't correct the issue immediately.
https://www.possupply.com/model-4850-flatbed-credit-card-imprinter?quantity=1&custcol_autoreorder_frequency=5
Edited
Crazy that this technology still exists. Half my credit cards don't even have raised numbers.
We're seeing less of them here. I think as climate catastrophe increases, they may come back.
As goverment can known your card transactions already if needed, then what transactions you want to hide?
The comparison was to cash, not credit cards. The government doesn't know who I hand cash to.
It is not a matter to "want to hide". It is more a matter to "need to know" access to my personal information. Why government want to know where and when I buy my stuffs? And most important, who will have acces to that? US recently saw that imbecile of Elon Musk being grant access to IRS data.
"want to hideβ != Privacy. Maybe I want to donate anonymously. Maybe I want to leave $5 in a community pantry or pay a backyard mechanic. Maybe I want to pay a neighbor for picking up milk for me. Maybe in a world of always on surveillance, it's a small act of resistance.
Unless something huge and world-altering happens, there is a 100% chance that it will not disappear in ten years. That would take generations because of the outliers. Although it will massively reduce in usage, and it wouldn't surprise me if non-food stores begin to phase out cash purchases in a decade.
China is already demonstrating this, since pretty much everything is paid for with a phone these days. And some vendors are using "no cash" signs.