It is not the anonymity that is important.

It is not having to ask someone permission to spend money like with a debit card, credit card, and even fucking crypto need institutional permission to have access to your power to spend yo money.

anonymity ain't shit.

Definitely, cash is critical

In the event of a disaster where the power grid and/or data communication goes down, how the fuck you gonna buy groceries, or anything else for that matter? 🤔

There's this:

https://thecashtracker.com/

If you get your cash out of an ATM, the machine could (I don't know if it does, but I suspect at least some do) scan every serial number of every bill it gives you. To counter that, you'd need to "launder" it though some other person, the more times and the farther away the better, until it gets spent back into the system, where it can be, once again scanned.

If you get your cash out of an ATM, and then turn around and stick it in a bill receiver at some self-checkout machine, that could possibly be tracked. I don't think this is hypothetical, I just didn't find any evidence in a quick search, but the site above shows it happens somehow.

Yes, cash is much better than a card that tracks every purchase, but it's not completely anonymous, either. And, it takes effort to ensure it's anonymous. It's not a given.

Hmmm. Since defacing a bill isn't a crime, marking out the serial number of every bill you receive would break the chain, except that you'd be one of the very few doing it. That would need to become widespread for it to have any real impact. Oh, but probably the machine would reject a bill with a marked-out serial number.

The only private alternative to cash that im aware of is monero. Nothing else is as private as cash.

Yes. Once cash is gone a huge aspect of privacy goes with it.

I am afraid it will happen in my lifetime.

Cash is not 100% anonymous though. Vendors see you, cameras record you, you may even have to sign and present id for some transactions.

Why is this a question?

"Should people be allowed to keep their rights?" -- this is usually intended to spark discussion, but discussing from this pov helps those who want bad things more than those who dont.

Cash is king. Always use cash when possible. I do, and I love it...

They want to keep track of everything so people pay their taxes…I mean a certain portion of the population that is.

Even with cash we're at the mercy of a country, if they fuck up their economy and hyperinflate it, money is gone anyway.

The only way forward is to carry around stuff that has intrinsic universal value. The currency of the future is potatoes, start stocking up.

I don't see the benefit for the average person to get rid of cash. If it's digital it's trackable, can be hacked and more easily controlled by other parties. Also it allows for banks to charge more service fees.

I know we're meant to be discussing this from a privacy perspective, but my first thought whenever the topic of eliminating cash comes up is that, at least where I am in the US, it's tantamount to euthanizing the homeless. The vast majority of unhoused folks I know (which is a lot, including myself for a terrible but thankfully short period of my life) get most of their necessities (particularly food) by buying them with cash they've earned through various means, rather than charities, food banks, soup kitchens, etc. And only a very small percentage of them has any sort of bank account and/or a device to manage digital currency.

But also privacy, yes. Cash is king.

Monero XMR is the last bastion of "anonymous" transactions. The issue is actually obtaining it privately.

They're going to tax/fine you however they want. This is already reality. Its no different from having a bank account or making transfers via Paypal or Zelle. Our currency is already heavily digitized and centralized by governments. Transitioning to CBDCs would just be making the back-end more robust, which I'm personally in favor for. The technology for this has been worked on for about a decade now.

For example: in Canada, the bank accounts of those who protested were literally frozen (for simply speaking out or being critical)

Yeah... try using that lie on people who live in Ottawa, see how it goes.

US recently introduced the bright idea of banknote serial numbers blacklists. Great incentive to hold greenbacks!

Cash is not anonymous. The serial numbers are being used for tracking.

Cash in the United States is not as private as it seems. Eventually the bills will be scanned at various points through the financial system and the serial numbers are logged by these authorities. It may take some time to collect the data versus being able to view a blockchain, but cash isn't as anonymous as it appears. And with a vastly decreasing amount of cash in circulation, it makes it a lot easier for the Govt to track its usage. It's still the best option even considering cryptocurrencies.

Another reason for the decline in cash is that as the U.S. debt increases, the economy will have to inflate along with it, and it's much easier to manage increasing inflation in an economy without physical currency. If things get really bad and conditions exist that would cause a bank run, well, good luck doing that if you can't have cash. Run off with a copy of the database or something.

More and more companies by me are asking people to use cash and offering a discount for doing so.

Credit card fees are a big expense for small businesses.

For sure, even if it's not perfect. Ready-to-use without electricity or internet, no payment processor shenanigans, and not nearly as comprehensive a system of tracking even if you account for serial numbers.

Who needs cash when you have bottle caps

I feel (maybe hope) that countries doing this would face significant challenges with currency substitution and private currencies. Ultimately if I want to buy something and my neighbor wants to sell me that thing the government becomes the, "Is there someone you forgot to ask?" meme.

It'd be metal af if I bought something from my neighbor and paid him in Yuan, lol.

all those bills you have are worthless.

That's the tricky thing is technically the government doesn't actually control what is worth stuff, its all just vibes. By undermining faith in their currency the government could actually lose a bit of control, not gain it. This was actually a huge fucking problem early in US history.

Im not cool with a cashless society that is not much more egalitarian.