THE ISSUES WITH MODERN MONEY
Opinion piece
In a world caught in the tight and unforgiving grip of the corona virus the issues of modern money have never been clearer. You get to the checkout only to realise they aren’t accepting cash – that’s fine you can always pay by card, until you can’t because the server for you bank is doing “necessary repairs.” Now you’re panicking because you can’t move your funds around to pay for your trip to Tesco. Then you’re stuck with the difficult and embarrassing issue of having to return your items to the shelves or leave the counter with nothing but a red face.
This is an example of the shift in views and acceptance between using cash as a means of trade and the use of digital assets and numbers as our currency. Cash is much more abstract now than it has ever been in human history. Our wealth is no longer determined by the amount of gold we possess in velvet purses, rather a series of digits that many people no longer understand or trust.It would not be fair to say that the new systems of modern money that are slowly becoming integrated in our daily lives are a bad thing. They aren’t. We simply need further education across the nation and the globe into how these alien forms of money work.
This is one of the primary issues with today's transition to a cashless society. A lack of knowledge that desperately needs to be rectified before the fear stemming from financial illiteracy becomes an epidemic.Another issue we are currently facing is the trials and tribulations that come with any form of social change. How do I move money from one account to another? How quickly can I make that transaction happen – I’m sure we’ve all felt the dread of anxiously refreshing the page of our online banking whilst waiting in the queue for the checkout. It’s an awful feeling and one I know and hope will be smoothed out as technology and social comfortability with using online banking systems progresses.
It is not a great dive from using digital banking methods to the deep and fruitful abyss of crypto-currency. After all, what is the cash in your bank other than numbers? The world of crypto is growing and progressing at such a rate that I believe we will all be using some form of cryptocurrency in our daily lives very soon – even if we don’t realise it. The beauty of crypto is its ability to transform and evolve to all forms of information and do so in a safe and secure way. But again the primary obstacle in creating a world where crypto is king is the fear that stems from misinformation and no information all together.In short I believe that a cashless society is inevitable and that “cashless” will soon evolve itself into a form of cryptocurrency. I sincerely hope that there is a new initiative to not only create and secure this new way of living but also educate the population sufficiently so that everyone is fluent in the strange new world of ones and zeros.
By Katy Miles