A Cashless Society - Closer than you may think...

The material below is taken from the financial section of the UK broadsheet newspaper The Telegraph on 19th April 2012. It concerns the widespread rollout of NFC PayTag stickers by Barclaycard, which customers are encouraged to stick to their mobile phones to allow fast and easy contactless payments. The article also explains how this technology is set to replace cash transactions in the near future. For anyone who owns a mobile phone which doesn't have NFC technology already integrated into the handset, these stickers allow easy access to contactless payments. But in the immediate future, all cell phones will have this technology fully incorporated by default.


'Save the Pound” was the cry when we feared Tony Blair was about to sacrifice our ancient currency for membership of the new-minted euro. Having seen off that challenge, those who prefer their money in traditional form face an equally sinister threat from the forces of banking technology...
The end of the cash economy is nigh. Millions of Barclaycard Visa cardholders are about to find they can make “contactless” payments of up to £15 (and from June, £20) by means of a sticker called a PayTag on the back of their mobile phones, which will merely have to be waved over a reader device without need of a signature or a PIN.

Hardly the end of civilisation, I hear you say: what’s so sinister? Like the Oyster Card and pay-by-phone parking, any electronic application that removes the need to carry a pocket full of change – or scuttle to find some when you’re in a hurry and it’s pouring with rain – is surely to be welcomed.

Technophobia can be irrational, and is overcome by familiarity: some of us resisted hole-in-the-wall cash dispensers long after they were introduced, on the grounds that PIN numbers were hard to remember, the machines were in exposed places and often out of order, and we preferred to be handed cash by a polite cashier who addressed us by name. But the technology became more reliable, PINs and passwords became basic tools of existence, and we realised that bank staff no longer knew or cared who we were. So the ATM became part of the furniture of life, with no accompanying sense of unease.

And that’s probably the way it will be, five years hence, for the daily stream of cashless, contactless transactions that will have largely replaced the regular visit to the ATM. The need for notes and coins will gradually diminish, and we will begin to forget why we ever felt emotionally attached to the idea of them.

The article then goes on to discuss the benefits to the various world's governments by the introduction of a cashless society based on electronic commerce through mobile phones:

The potential for reducing cash-related misbehaviour is a big arrow in the quiver of the advocates of cashlessness. It’s easy to count who loses out in the transition: not just the mugger but the market stallholder, the vendor of contraband booze and rolling tobacco, the odd-job plumber and anyone else who routinely fails to account to the taxman. The Spanish government, teetering on the brink of the next episode of Europe’s debt crisis, is proposing to outlaw all cash transactions involving more than 2,500 euros in order to quell the black economy and maximise tax collection – but also proposing to exempt non-residents, so cash-rich British bank robbers can rest assured that they will still be able to live it large on the Costas.
(Read the full article here)

In addition to the world's governments being able to claim billions in lost revenue from tradesmen who are usually paid up-front in cash and can thus can escape paying taxes, it also has the potential to eliminate illicit trades dependant on cash transactions, such as prostitution, drug-dealing, illegal gambling, as well as robberies and the selling on of stolen goods. The world's banks also stand to profit from cashless transactions, as they will escape from having to maintain ATM machines, which require regular restock of cash via costly security transit firms, which are also frequently subject to robberies. It would also lessen the requirement of many of the functions of the humble bank cashiers and physical branches, which largely deal with cash and cheque deposits and withdrawals, meaning that banks would make massive saving on store fees. So it is easy to imagine that this form of cashless society will be eventually pushed through at the insistence of both the world's governments and banking systems.
The reason that mobile phones will become the central component of this form of electronic commerce through contactless payments is simple, as is spelled out in the following article:

The tag is about a third of the size of a normal credit card, and can be stuck onto any flat surface. So it doesn't matter whether your phone is the latest iPhone, BlackBerry or even an 80s style phone the size of a brick.
Indeed, it doesn't even have to be on a phone at all. If you have a particularly chunky watch, or carry an Oyster card with you all the time, the PayTag can be placed on that instead. Barclaycard has chosen to market PayTag in this way because it believes the mobile phone has become the most essential thing to have about your person at all times.
When the time comes to pay for your items, you merely hover your phone (or wherever you've placed the PayTag) over the payment terminal and your payment should be made. I tried it out myself and can report that it was extremely easy – and most importantly, quick – to do.
(See full article here)

The Royal Canadian Mint recently unveiled its vision of how digital currency will replace cash in the near future, with its development of the MintChip. It issued a video which elabarates how this form of digital money is set to replace cash tranactions through cell phones, etc.

The most frightening prospect of this cashless society scenario is that it will become truly impossible to buy or sell anything without owning a cell phone with built-in NFC technology capabilities. So even if we chose to forgo using cell phones now, we would be compelled to own one in the future if we wanted to be able to engage in any form of commerce at all - even down to the tiniest transaction. The only viable alternative would be to live in a truly self-sustaining farm or community - which simply isn't a option for the vast majority of people.

See the related article:

Cell Phones and the Mark of the Beast