And this is why we, the people, should embrace Defi of all forms and not bow to govt media bullshit about volatility (anyone long sterling recently?) and hack theft. I’m in the process of building the worlds first crypto/NFT/Defi insurer and although I won’t share any sensitive information the likelihood of event is not what one would expect.I agree with you there, especially for small incidental purchases like transport tickets or coffee and snacks but since the pandemic I'm encountering more and more places that won't take cash. And of course the government has an agenda there, monitoring and controlling all transactions, and theoretically at least, being able to 'adjust' the value of, or restrict an individual's money if they ever went to a fully digital currency where of course each unit is numbered, like crypto. Like the Chinese control people with social credit (sanctions for not toeing the party line, essentially), but instantly and electronically, rather than their carrot and stick system.
What worries me about the gradual move away from cash is this: you are too old or for other reasons unable to drive. Perhaps you rely on public transport to get to hospital or just the shops for food. There are no banks or post offices with counter service. The bus only takes some card or other, and there is no human at the train station any more.
Your eyesight or cognitive ability, or memory is beginning to go, so smartphones are too expensive, too confusing, your hands are too arthritic to work the touch screen, and anyway someone hacked it because you've had it 5 years and don't know how to install the latest OS, or it's too old to run it and your meagre state pension won't stretch to a new smartphone even if you wanted one, or knew how to use it. You could literally starve to death or be unable to access medical care.
I tell you, if we're not careful, they're going to make anyone who can't keep up with the tech race either financially or cognitively essentially worse than 2nd class citizens; they could be totally disenfranchised, left unable to use transport or even receive or spend their own money. God help us from 40-something Chief Tech Officers and CFOs who railroad all these csshless unmanned systems through in critical services all in the name of "efficiency savings". They're literally selling their own granny, and everyone else's.
Probably sounds a bit alarmist and far-fetched right now, but I doubt anyone would be able to advocate against it when the government and big businesses stand to gain. We're a way off it yet of course, but that's what they said about 1984 in 1948.
Governments cannot control the people if we stand together, which is why we are divided by media bullshit and ‘Inclusiveness’ which is all around creating silos and encouraging hate so that we don’t reach effective mass.