
Predicting A Future Free Of Dollar Bills - brmunk
http://techcrunch.com/2014/07/12/money-at-our-fingertips/
======
nmrm
The whole time I was reading this all I could think was "man, this reads like
a bad advertisement."

Then I noticed the disclaimer (horribly placed; I skipped over it the first
time because it looked like a caption text for the banner image): _Editor’s
note: Simon Black is CEO at London-based Sage Pay._

edit: So, this is a long-form advertisement for a payment processing company.
Why do people still read tech crunch?

Also, biometrics for payment? Christ, because payment processing
hardware/support/service isn't expensive enough already! And has the past
decade of massive privacy violations by both the private and public sectors
taught us nothing?

~~~
alexhawdon
Quite. Additionally:

"...will also make fraud virtually impossible..."

I'm pretty sure this line is trotted out every time a new payment technology
is introduced. But one that's tied to some irrevocable, personally-assigned
'key'... yup: nothing could possibly go wrong there!

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kephra
> Why go to the hassle of carrying loose change when you can swipe a card to
> make a purchase within seconds?

\- Because cash is anonymous, and card transaction violate my freedom.

\- Because credit card companies charge 2-4%. And therefore raise the prices
for everyone.

\- Because only cash is legal tender.

> A further benefit for us is that it will give us peace of mind as there will
> be less concern over having money stolen.

I one steels my purse, I only lose the cash I have at hand. But if one steels
my credit card, they can rob my complete bank account. Also credit cards are
insecure by design, compared to EuroCheck cards. You do mot even to remember a
4 digit PIN to use them. The card number and expiration date is enough to rob
me.

~~~
davidjgraph
"Because credit card companies charge 2-4%. And therefore raise the prices for
everyone."

And you think those armoured vehicles that transport the cash away from the
shops do it for free?

~~~
roganartu
Many small businesses do not use these services due to that cost. I know many
people who run small stores that casually walk a couple of thousand dollars to
the bank after a good day.

Hell, I used to work at a pub that had it's staff carry over $100k to the bank
every Monday morning, though that amount is arguably grossly irresponsible
both from a business perspective and with regards to staff safety.

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Yizahi
I hope cash will last for 50 years or so (at looking at how legacy systems are
maintained it is realistic). One less point of identification - one less point
of attack on a person. And I'm not even paranoid, massive spying on people
using metadata and selling it to the highest bidder is already real today.

And situation of leaving stuff due to lack of cash is actually good for
majority of people - you either a) monitor for finances before starting
activity that involves payments, and then you do this regularly everywhere. Or
b) you learn to discard and don't buy most useless products on the market.
It's a win-win.

~~~
petercooper
_And situation of leaving stuff due to lack of cash is actually good for
majority of people_

I agree. My significant other is very poor at handling money but there are so
many things companies and banks do to make it easy for them to spend money in
a cash-free way. Overdrafts, clothes stores offering a 'card' which give you a
discount but then lets you run up a balance, and similar bullshit. It's gotten
so bad I'm going to get them a chargecard they put money on at the start of
the money and then use like cash..

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VLM
From the article:

"By removing cash, you reduce the chances of becoming a target of crime"

Reality:

"By removing cash, you increase the chances of becoming a tax criminal"

My suspicion is everyone will be a trivially detected tax criminal by design,
but if you just vote the right way and keep your head down and avoid offending
anyone in power and stay out of politics unless invited, that punishment will
never be unleashed. It'll be a form of control. I can do without increased
.gov control, we have enough, thanks.

Furthermore I predict we'll pretend the database is closed and private even
though it'll be wide open to all .gov and by extension .com. Go to the wrong
person's yard sale (perhaps an ex employee), HR will make sure you never get
an interview, etc.

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avmich
This approach - giving your identity to prove you're going to pay for the item
- seems overly careless in the age of privacy violations. Another system -
where you can only give the proof, without the identity - would be better, but
it's unclear at the moment how that could be reached.

Besides, putting an item on the shelf in case you don't have enough cash has
another nice feature - an opportunity to think twice if you really need that
item in the first place. If you pay too easily, it's harder to save.

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techsupporter
I hope the author is correct, at least for more advanced forms of payment by
plastic. I'm skeptical for the US though. Contactless cards are hard to come
by and several issuers stopped sending them even though the terminals are
present. We don't even have widely-available chip-and-PIN (and the few issuers
of those cards almost entirely make them default to chip-and-signature).

~~~
petercooper
Most cards in the UK are contactless now but I can genuinely say I've never
seen anyone ever make a contactless transaction. I have tried myself a few
times but it failed the first time (operator had no idea why) and the other
times it felt more awkward and took more time than doing it the "standard"
way.

I think we'll get there with it, but socially it's currently about as popular
as the self-check out line back in 2001 or the self-ordering kiosk at KFC now
(which I always use to jump the line while everyone else is standing around..
seriously, why?)

~~~
jarek
It's definitely a matter of getting used to it. I moved from Canada where
contactless has been standard for a couple of years now and being unable to
get a contactless UK card for now I'm super annoyed every time I have to punch
in PINs to pay £1 - £3 for something small. The extra 30 seconds just feel
totally unnecessary.

~~~
dasil003
Why not just use cash? Unlike in the US and Canada, the coinage is actually
worth enough to buy real things with pocket change.

~~~
jarek
A few coins are much heavier and thicker than a card, for one. Just tapping a
card is faster than picking out coins then waiting for change. And when paying
with card I know I won't get any two pence coins back.

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valvar
I'm hoping for the return of coins. In Norway, I hear that they are planning
to introduce a 50kr (equivalent of €5) coin.

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xiaoma
That would be one way to push the poor, the homeless and those who want
privacy even further to the margins of society.

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jarek
The headline sounds great - I much prefer dollar coins

~~~
chrismcb
From financial perspective dollar coins make sense, as they are cheaper. But
from the weight in my pocket, I much prefer dollar bills.

------
ISL
Is it true that 1% of people (by any large geographic measure) have used
Bitcoin in the last month?

