The move from cash to cashless, soon to be a reality, has taken place at lightning speed in less than 30 years.
‘The trend began in daily life during the 1990’s, when electronic banking became popular. By the 2010’s digital payment methods were widespread in many countries with electronic bills and banking all in widespread use. Cash started to become discouraged in some kinds of transactions and actively prohibited by some suppliers and retailers to the point of coining the expression “a war on cash”.
By 2016 in the UK it was reported that 1 in 7 people no longer carries or uses cash and the 2016 United States User Consumer Survey Study claims that 75% of respondents preferred a credit or debit card as their payment method while only 11% of respondents preferred cash.
By 2017, digital payment methods such as Venmo and Square contribute to cashless transactions allowing individuals to make direct payments to other individuals and allowing small businesses to receive payments from their clients.’[1]
‘Sweden is the most cashless society on the planet, with barely 1% of the value of all payments made using coins or notes last year (2016). Across the country, cash is now used in less than 20% of transactions in stores – half the number five years ago, according to the Riksbank, Sweden’s central bank. (Some predict Sweden will be fully cashless by 2030).
In the US. Prof Arvidsson predicts that the use of cash will most likely be reduced to “a very marginal payment form” by 2020.’[2]
Predictions from the BBC state that cash volumes (the amount of cash in circulation) are expected to fall by over 30% in the next decade, whereas MBNA predict a 50% fall in the same period.
In 2006, 62% of all payments in the UK were made using cash; in 2016 the proportion had fallen to 40%. By 2026, it is predicted cash will be used for just 21%, according to figures from UK Finance.[3]
Investopedia Reports;
- Citibank in Australia decided in November 2016 to get rid of cash at all its branches.
- In Belgium, it’s already illegal to buy real estate using cash – or indeed make any purchase in excess of 3000 euros in cash, with the exception of second-hand goods.
- Ecuador, in 2014, became the world’s first nation whose central bank introduced a virtual currency.
- Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has ambitions to move the nation toward cashlessness.
- Kenya now has one of the highest mobile money penetration rates anywhere in the world.
- Singapore has serious ambitions to lead Asia in going fully cashless.
- The Bank of Korea, South Korea’s central bank, has plans to go cashless as soon as 2020, and adopt a national digital currency comparable to bitcoin.
- Currently, you can’t buy subway or bus passes with cash in Sweden.
In addition the Nigerian government adopted a no cash policy in 2012.
With other technological advances such as ‘human chipping’, inserting microchips into people, the drive towards a cashless society is set to continue to gather momentum and is already being offered to employees in some companies.
What does this mean?
Revelation 13: 16-17– ‘He also forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead, so that no-one could not buy or sell unless he had the mark..’
This passage, written nearly 2,000 years ago, foretells of a global financial system that prohibits your ability to buy or sell unless you have a certain mark. How could the writer have any comprehension of how this could happen 2,000 years ago when people were still bartering, the world was unexplored with only local communication? Yet today, in only the last 30 years we have seen the sudden rise of the technology to achieve it and know that it can and will happen soon?
What else does the Bible tell us?– The Future
What does that mean for you?– Good News
[1]Wikipedia
[2]BBC News 17thSeptember 2017
[3]The Guardian 19thFebruary 2018