Ok, so we've all seen the news about the infamous Silk Road being shut down recently.
Silk Road of course being the 'dark' web site where trafficking of wares and services were held.
Think of it as an online black market where you could purchase less than legal items, such as drugs and guns, using an online currency called Bitcoin.
Obviously, this is no longer the case as the FBI recently shut down the site.
Site owner, Ross Ulbricht, is being held in custody sparking controversy regarding internet freedom issues; which comes at a seemingly coincidental time as David Cameron begins his reelection campaign under the banner of 'making the internet a safer place for our children'.
Now I'm no politician, thankfully, however if we start to make restrictions on one thing, no matter how distasteful the content, we will have to make concessions on another.
And lets not forget that the issue of taste is subjective; so what happens when 'The Simpsons' is banned because some uptight conservative finds the humor puerile?
But I digress.
Perhaps that rant is best saved for another blog!
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| Will physical cash become a thing of the past? |
The concept of the digital currency, Bitcoin, was introduced in a 2008 paper by a pseudonymous developer known as 'Satoshi Nakamoto', who, as the legend goes, is a reclusive mathematician.
As a digital currency, Bitcoin is now growing in popularity as legitimate traders make the move towards that thin, ever shrinking blurred line that seperates digital and physical reality to accept it as a payment option.
The fact that the transaction fees are lower than the typical 2-3% imposed by credit card processors acts as a nice little incentive!
Some major names are paving the binary road to this new frontier with well known companies such as Wordpress, OKCupid, Reddit and Chinese internet giant Baidu all signing up.
Now combine this digital currency with mobile payments that utilize NFC (near field communication) and you have the embryo for a cashless world!
With just a tap of your smart phone or device to the payment area at the till and your balance is paid in full, easy!
The smart phone is linked to your bank account and automatically deducts the funds from your account, similar to any typical card payment, making for a safe and extremely easy transaction!
With these two cashless payment methods, and potentially more in the pipeline, could we be witnessing the death of actual cash money in our society?
If we think about the amount of resources that go into the production and distribution of cash all over the world it's easy to imagine how much cash, cash actually costs.
And let's not forget how much money gets lost over the years.
Who of you cannot say you've ever lost a tenner somewhere or even your entire wallet?
I'll freely admit to losing my fair share, I've unwittingly dropped cash all over the place, not as often as I've found some other poor souls notes but, such is life.
If you lose your handbag or wallet then the probability of you ever getting that cash back is slim to none, but what if the only item that resided in your wallet or purse was a plastic card that could easily be replaced with a quick phone call?
No big deal.
Plus, you can pay with you phone anyway, right?
Right.
The argument for a cashless world seems sound but surely there will be pitfalls along the way however if history has taught us anything it's that nothing can stop the march of progress.
