Cash is one of the last ways for human persons to exchange value without having a corporate intermediary or government institution act on their behalf. Human cultures will be losing quite a bit if they allow nation states to progressively ban person to person interactions like this.
It also creates a very fragile, expensive to maintain society in which transactions are not possible during emergencies.
Considering global wealth distribution and the "1%", how often do 95% of people make a EUR10k purchase and of those, how many prefer the safety and guarantees offered by conducting the transaction through a financial institution?
I don't use cash that often but having the option is extremely important.
Without cash governments and corporations can block your transaction for any reason all while tracking where you are and what you are buying.
Maybe these current politicans and corporate boards won't abuse this power, but it is only a matter until they do.
We already know about cases where credit card companies have prevented (and have threatened to prevent) transactions from going to other businesses. If there is no alternative to digital currency we would be dictated by corporations and governments what we can and cannot buy.
1. Some sort of kill switch that allows those in power/with control to just "turn off" dissenters(not taking into account those sponsored by other entities);
2. Some sort of underground markets for other means of transfering money like gift cards and such;
3. create a parallel economy via some sort of bartering system in countries where digital means are not exactly widely adopted in rural areas;
Anti-money laundering is one of the last vestiges of bureaucratic tyranny. It's no wonder those measures fail in 99.95% of cases, causing grief to legitimate businesses and customers.
Question is, just how rampant is money laundering? I realize they aren't really trying to stop money laundering, but rather catch criminals that use money laundering (at least that is the story) but how useful is it? It seems to me that we spend way to much effort on preventing money laundering for the little, supposed gain there is.
And yes I realize it is more about control than catching criminals
In my personal opinion these rules would contribute to a very dystopian society. Will Europeans permit these rules to be enacted or are they powerless to stop them? Am I the only one that perceives a major control risk forcing non cash purchases? I am not really able to wrap my head around people letting this happen. If anything, I have been moving further away from banks and debit cards. Amazon was my most recent bad experience and I have been finding it more difficult to reach a real non scripted human. In a completely digital world a person could be financially destroyed nearly instantaneously with no recourse or fall-back plan.
Yep, governments only care about control. Currency is a big part of that. It's clear our future is going to be very locked down. Big Brother will say it's for our own good.
It also creates a very fragile, expensive to maintain society in which transactions are not possible during emergencies.