Welcome to a World Without Money
Imagine a world without cash. That world is coming — and sooner than you think.
Cash has been a key element in the evolution of civilization for more than 3000 years. However, in the last decade it has been losing predominance in favor of electronic money. As online commerce progressively expands and becomes widely adopted and as prepaid credit cards and electronic services such as PayPal, Pioneer and Google and Amazon Pay are increasingly used for low-value cash transactions, money, as we know it, is on its way to becoming obsolete.
But, as cash dies out, quickly becoming a thing from the past, who will profit and who will lose?
The shift to a cashless society is on the horizon. In countries like Sweden, paying with cash has become a hassle and a hard reality for some citizens who have reluctantly been forced to change their consumption habits. Sweden has banned notes and coins almost everywhere, from shops to public transport — after unions protested over the drivers’ safety — even church and homeless people accept electronic money now. Last year barely 1% of all transactions were made using coins or notes, compared to around 7% in EU and in the US. Sweden predicts that just half a percent of its transactions will be in cash by 2020.
