Merchant Link (2016) defines a cashless society as a society where transactions are made using cards and virtual payments rather than real money. It is observable that replacing physical cash completely with digital money will cause controversies as it can have both advantages and disadvantages. Nevertheless, there is evidence that a cashless society with a minority of cash would be optimal, considering that the drawbacks that digital money brings to the community are manageable and not as important as its benefits.
One advantage of a cashless community is that financial crimes are more difficult to be committed due to traceable transactions (Marria, 2018). Money laundering, a particularly severe crime which usually causes serious damage to business entities, would be stopped significantly in a cashless society (Merchant Link, 2016). Meanwhile, Henly (2016) claims that the number of records of online frauds has increased doubly over a decade in Sweden.
However, various cutting-edge technologies can be applied to tackle cybercrime by preventing hackers from gaining access to the systems to conduct illegal transactions (Marria, 2018; Merchant Link, 2016). Merchant Link (2016) shows that robbery and pickpocketing will be less likely if people do not use cash since they do not carry it with them. Therefore, regarding the level of security, virtual payments are superior.
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Furthermore, being cashless helps people make payments more efficiently and more frequently, which may contribute to economic growth (Merchant Link, 2016). In Sweden, numerous enterprises adopting electronic payments have reported an increase of as much as 30% in selling figures (Henly, 2016). On the other hand, Reid (2018) indicates that people either residing in rural areas with an unstable Internet connection, being financially dependent or having disabilities may encounter some difficulties with cashless transactions.
Some practical solutions would be improving the networks and creating more user-friendly interfaces to support users as much as possible (Marria, 2018). Although digital money is prominent, cash still has a role in society, especially to the previous generations who are not familiar with modern technologies, thus prefer the more traditional way of purchasing items (Henly, 2016). Reid (2018) agrees with the situation by informing a caveat in a study on ‘Access to Cash’ stating that some people with specific difficulties in the U.K. may face several problems if the country becomes cashless. Hence, despite the enormous potentials of cashless payments in improving productivity, the physical currency should be given a place in the society as online systems may be unaffordable for people in medium and lower classes.
In conclusion, the progress towards a cashless society seems to resemble an asymptote of a graph in mathematics; it may not be able to be fully achieved, but the gap can be narrowed gradually as technologies and the society advance. As Henly (2016) demonstrates, even in Sweden, the leading country in being cashless, although cash accounts for a small portion and is predicted to decrease further, it will still exist in the daily life of a part of residents due to some social aspects.
