How Long It Will Be Before Our Society Becomes A Cashless One?

[Mr Bloke]

17 minutes ago, hackey lad said:

Thanks . Thought it was just me 

Hmmm...

I agree you can be a little annoying, Mr Hackey...

... but I certainly wouldn't call you a troll!

[Anna B]

Certainly a cashless society is on the way. And the chip will follow.

People might think this is fine until the first cyber attack wipes out all your money.

 

Our dependence on computers and all things electronic is a mistake.

It leaves us vulnerable.

Think it can't happen?

Think again.

We've already had bank 'glitches' and data breaches,

Imagine that on an enormous scale. 

 

 

Edited October 26, 2022 by Anna B

[Delayed]

7 minutes ago, Anna B said:

Certainly a cashless society is on the way. And the chip will follow.

People might think this is fine until the first cyber attack wipes out all your money.

 

Our dependence on computers and all things electronic is a mistake.

It leaves us vulnerable.

Think it can't happen?

Think again.

We've already had bank 'glitches' and data breaches,

Imagine that on an enormous scale. 

 

 

We'll continue to live with both. Which is one of the safeguards. 

 

And there are obviously digital safeguards in place to stop a country wide digital withdrawal. 

 

Btw we are not the only country using computers so if anyone tried hacking on the scale you are suggesting it wouldn't just affect the UK. 

 

You must be watching too many dramas or action films because I'm pretty sure what you are suggesting is the plot of Die Hard 4

[Dromedary]

1 hour ago, Anna B said:

Certainly a cashless society is on the way. And the chip will follow.

I doubt that would be for a very long time yet and certainly not in our lifetimes.

 

Quote

People might think this is fine until the first cyber attack wipes out all your money.

That is very unlikely to happen even in the worst scenario as there are too many safeguards and backups in Place to protect it all. Even the data centres that banks use are nukeproof and fire proof because if anything happens it wipe out all money including theirs and that will not be allowed to happen. It's a bit like the internet where data is mirrored and backed up and stored on many computers.

 

Edited October 26, 2022 by Dromedary
did a slinny

[Zinger549]

1 hour ago, Anna B said:

Certainly a cashless society is on the way. And the chip will follow.

People might think this is fine until the first cyber attack wipes out all your money.

 

Our dependence on computers and all things electronic is a mistake.

It leaves us vulnerable.

Think it can't happen?

Think again.

We've already had bank 'glitches' and data breaches,

Imagine that on an enormous scale. 

 

 

You think this is going to happen but then you think Jeremy Corbyn would make a good PM.  Many people still use cash and will continue to do so for many years to come.  Did you read about it on Twitter or watch a video on Youtube?

[Guest sibon]

1 hour ago, Anna B said:

Certainly a cashless society is on the way. And the chip will follow.

People might think this is fine until the first cyber attack wipes out all your money.

 

Our dependence on computers and all things electronic is a mistake.

It leaves us vulnerable.

Think it can't happen?

Think again.

We've already had bank 'glitches' and data breaches,

Imagine that on an enormous scale. 

 

 

Almost all of my money is cashless. I hope that you don’t think that HSBC have  special box stuffed with tenners that are the proceeds of sibon’s gold plated pension (tm).

 

We shove money all around the world at the touch of a button. It’s truly a brilliant thing to be able to do. It makes business easier and cheaper. That makes us all richer.

 

I’m all for a cashless society. Bring it on.

[RollingJ]

4 hours ago, ECCOnoob said:

Hopefully yes. The quicker the better.

 

(Middle deleted to save space -  but still available in original post)

 

 

 

 

It really wasnt that long ago that the thought of a electronic brain that can calculate some simple mathematics was seen as witchcraft... now a cheap pocket calculator is seen as the absolute basic of basics, can be retailed at less than £1 and manufactured in some far eastern workshop for pennies.

As usual, @ECCOnoob, you have explained clearly (and nearly) concisely why the paranoid amongst us are , to put it politely, talking rubbish or worrying about something they clearly don't understand - thank you.

[Anna B]

5 hours ago, ECCOnoob said:

Hopefully yes. The quicker the better.

 

Coinage is annoying and bulky to carry to around.  Banknotes after a while in circulation are filthy, fondled by thousands of pairs of hands, stuffed in and out of sweaty pockets, sat on, farted on, stuffed into dirty wallets or handbags, lying around on all kinds of surfaces, held in many people's mouths.....  If that was any other kind of object being passed around so freely most people wouldn't touch it without a pair of rubber gloves and a bottle of disinfectant.

 

Cash of course is also a great expense to businesses in its processing,  secure storage and transportation.  For more than the cost of software which can tally everything up, allocate and redistribute at the click of a button.

 

Society has always been moving towards cashless for far longer than most people think. There is reference to an early version of cheques being used right back in Roman times, then came bills of exchange, and modern from cheques developed by the late 1700s.

 

Not forgetting a 'cash' banknote itself is nothing more than a promissory payment note tied to a specific commodity or currency set by the issuing bank.  If it wasn't for such a arrangement, the piece of paper that we preciously hold in our hands is actually in itself valueless.   

 

Even back in the black and white days when 'modern day' consumer banking first came on the scene, people were not using wads of cash to transfer between each other. They were using cheques, bankers drafts, bankers orders. Go look up some images from the 20s, 30s of early banking operations, rooms filled with clerks and typists all processing thousands of cashless transactions. 

 

After the cheques came the plastic cards initially with the fascinating imprinter machine and carbon chits, then electronic transactions with our scrawled signatures on the back of receipts, that evolved into chip and pin machines, then contactless cards and the latest versions of technology removing need for a physical card completely. 

 

Whichever tool is used, it is all doing the same thing.  Deducting an amount of value from one set of computerised figures and increasing value of a different set of computerised figures.  It really is as simple as that.

 

Do we really need to get our knickers in such a twist over the method of how that happens. I suspect most people really don't care.

 

I really don't get the paranoia and hysteria over this.  Nobody is keeping piles of money under their mattress. We all rely on banks at some form. I really don't care if my bank knows how many times I buy a Costa coffee each week or that Sainsbury's is tracking my groceries which I buy the same of every week anyway.  If someone was that desperate to find out my personal habits, they could do that anyway physically.

 

Yes we get targeted advertising, yes we get tracked which sets individual price points on the things we buy. But we all embrace the conveniences and benefits that comes with it.

 

All these features which are hysterically portrayed as invasions into our privacy,  in my opinion, are not so different to things which have come before. The targeted advertising all over the internet every time you click on a link is really not a million miles away from the piles of junk mail we used to receive through our doors everyday. The marketing lists, the community-based local adverts, the flyers being left on our car windscreens...

 

People complain about the amount of information when they sign up for online services but is that really any different to the days of going into a store and having to fill in forms to get HP, credit, club membership or special discount cards. It might have been on paper but it was still logged, reviewed then tracked the same as anything else.

 

Is customer profiling really a million miles apart from the days of being accosted by 1000 clipboard wielding market researchers every time you walked down the street or the days of the census takers knocking on everyone's doors...

 

As I say, I suspect the majority really don't care and are simply interested in maintaining their personalised discounts at their favourite stores and the convenience that comes with targeted online shopping.  If Mr Google knows what I want before I know what I want - is that  really something to be scared of or something we should instead be embracing as a sign of how far we have come and celebrating what we can achieve in technological advancement.

 

It really wasnt that long ago that the thought of a electronic brain that can calculate some simple mathematics was seen as witchcraft... now a cheap pocket calculator is seen as the absolute basic of basics, can be retailed at less than £1 and manufactured in some far eastern workshop for pennies.

All this is true, and why we may well be living in a cashless society before very long.

 

More and more businesses will become cashless (like Centre Parks) until few businesses will accept cash at all. There are already a few places in Sheffield doing this. (Online shopping has accelerated the process.) At that point we will have a cashless society.

 

But everything I've said about how it could all go wrong still stands. 

 

We are being forced down the digital path, which in a peaceful, well ordered world is fine. But we do not live in that world and our reliance on computers and electronics makes us vulnerable. Nuclear bombs are old technology and destroy valuable real estate. Cyber warfare is the future and just as effective. If you don't think most countries are already working on this, (and how to counter it,) you are naive. Cripple some country's  money supply and you've ruined their economy. 

[HeHasRisen]

You keep all of your money under the mattress then, Anna?

[Anna B]

6 minutes ago, HeHasRisen said:

You keep all of your money under the mattress then, Anna?

No, since lockdown I've been using cashless too. But I would support legislation that made businesses maintain the choice, by accepting cash and other forms of payment. 

Edited October 26, 2022 by Anna B