I know just about every one of us here in Hive-Land is a crypto enthusiast. I am, too. But I also believe that we need cash.
Governments and banks are showing a lot of enthusiasm for CBDC's, and are pushing very hard indeed for a cashless society. In other words, they want control over our money and how we are allowed to spend it. In the case of the banks, I am also sure that when there's no alternative they'll significantly increase the cost per transaction - currently paid by the merchant or retailer at a rate of 2-4% which has to be passed on to the consumer in the form of increased prices.
I believe that no matter what regulations might be introduced, crypto will survive as a way for people to transact with each other, even if it has to go underground.
But the drive for a cashless society is progressing fast. As a business, finding a bank that will allow cash deposits is becoming increasingly challenging. I live near London in the UK, and it is increasingly common to find that businesses won't take cash, and that things like parking have to be paid for by card or through an app, you can't just stick coins in the parking meter any more.
But I've had a few cases recently of what you might call "first world problems" that wouldn't have happened if payment by cash was still an option.
Image by Annick Vanblaere from Pixabay
The first case was on a recent trip up to Yorkshire. At about 6.30 on a Friday night, we pulled into the motorway service station at Woodall on the M1, just south of Sheffield. By that stage of the journey, I was pretty hungry !
Hot food options were a KFC and a Burger King. My wife went off to get a sandwich from a Subway (she's vegetarian, and neither of the hot food options appealed to her). Both KFC and Burger King have big touch screens where you can place an order and pay by card. There are no human-operated tills or cash options, just a pick-up point for when the food is ready.
This is where I discovered a problem. I was going from touch screen to touch screen, waiting in each queue in turn, then tapping them with increasing frustration (and hunger) wondering why nothing was happening. Eventually, I was rescued by my wife, wandering over to find out why I hadn't come back to the table she'd found. She was able to use the machine with no problem.
In technical terms, the screens are capacitive, meaning that touching them completes an electrical circuit at a location that can be read by sensors. For most people, the tiny amount of sweat on the end of the finger is enough to allow the circuit to be completed.
For me, that doesn't happen - my hands just don't sweat. Not at all. I have a thyroid condition which is perfectly normal, and I'm not sure whether the non-sweating is down to the medication or the condition itself. But the end result is, that that kind of touch screen is totally unusable for me. I'm not disabled, but it made me realise that many disabled people would really struggle with that kind of setup. It doesn't help that they are set at a height that can be used by normal-sized adults, but someone in a wheelchair would only be able to pick a meal off the bottom row.
All of this could have been avoided if there was just a traditional ordering point with a human staff member and the ability to take cash !
Image by Vlad Vasnetsov from Pixabay
The second case was when I used a multi-storey car park in Woking a few weeks ago. The system is that they use ANPR (automatic number plate recognition) to read the number plate on your car when you enter the car park. When you want to leave, you go to a machine, enter your number plate and pay by card (no cash option), and then go back to your car and leave. That's the theory.
In reality, something went wrong, either when I entered the car park or when I got to the exit barrier. One of their cameras didn't recognise my number plate. So the barrier wouldn't operate to let me out. There's a "Help" button at the barrier; when I pressed it, the chap on the other end of a tinny-sounding speaker was adamant that their system showed no payment and wanted me to go back and pay (again - darned if I'm paying twice just to escape the same grotty car park).
It was clear there was a delay between me paying and the bank showing the transaction in their account - that's normal, every minute banks can hold money in limbo between two customers they can make interest on it. The assistant finally opened the barrier for me when I explained him that this was the case and that I'd be waiting in the car right there blocking the exit until the transaction cleared.
This is just two examples of cases where the "old" way of doing things with cash has been made infinitely more frustrating and complex by the introduction of cashless automated systems. We need to keep cash and humans in the loop !
