We Love Cashless Payments
In recent years, cashless payments have become an inseparable part of everyday life, and their popularity is growing dynamically. This is mainly due to their speed, convenience, and efficiency. Paying for coffee with a single tap of a card or mobile phone, transferring money within seconds, or having an instant overview of one’s expenses in a mobile app – these are benefits that most of us appreciate.
The growing popularity is also supported by an ever-expanding range of technologies: contactless cards, mobile wallets, or smart watches allow payments without the need to handle cash. Thanks to this, cashless transactions are not only comfortable but also hygienic and secure, which proved especially important during the pandemic.
From the perspective of the economy and the financial system, cashless payments bring greater efficiency and transparency. They enable faster circulation of money, easier tracking of financial flows, and lower costs associated with handling cash. Entrepreneurs and customers alike appreciate their flexibility, 24/7 availability, and the possibility of instant transaction confirmation.
Despite the undeniable advantages of digital and cashless payments, cash remains a strategic element of the economy, and its importance in today’s unstable world is even increasing.
When the System Fails, the Card Is Not Enough
For a cashless payment to take place, a number of conditions must work: electricity, internet connection, terminals, and banking systems. If a single link in the chain fails, the payment does not occur. For a few minutes, it is an inconvenience. But what if the outage lasted hours or days?
A cyberattack on a bank, a large-scale blackout, or the collapse of telecommunications networks would mean that cards and mobile phones would stop working. Cash registers in supermarkets would stop, smaller shops could sell – but only to those who have cash. In such moments, cash becomes the only certainty.
It is true that even smaller shops would face operational problems during a large-scale blackout. People would therefore look for ways to secure their basic needs directly from producers, outside the traditional retail network. And it is precisely here that cash would play a key role – it enables immediate exchange, is independent of infrastructure, and remains a universally accepted means.
Freedom Means the Possibility of Choice
Cash is important not only in crisis situations but also in everyday life. Its true value lies in something much more fundamental: in preserving individual freedom. The decision whether I pay by card, mobile, or banknote is an expression of my personal choice. However, if the possibility of using cash disappeared, this choice would narrow, and with it, a part of freedom would vanish.
At first glance, it may seem that it is only a compromise in exchange for greater convenience. In reality, however, we are talking about something much more essential – the right to manage one’s own money freely, without intermediaries and without interference from the state or technology companies. Cash is the only form of money that is directly in the hands of the citizen: it does not require a bank account, a smartphone, or internet access.
The loss of cash would therefore mean not only a technological but also a social change. Every transaction would be dependent on infrastructure, monitorable, and potentially controllable. And that is why cash represents more than just a means of payment – it is both a symbol and an instrument of personal freedom.
What a Cashless Society Would Mean
• Full dependence on technology – a power outage means a collapse of payments.
• The end of anonymity – every transaction would be traceable.
• The possibility of blocking money – an account may be frozen; without cash, you do not have money.
A Cashless World and the Threat of Negative Interest Rates
Let us imagine a situation where a state strives to revive the economy and wants to force citizens to actively spend their savings. In a purely cashless economic environment, the central bank could, through monetary tools, encourage commercial banks to introduce negative interest rates on deposits.
For an ordinary person, this would mean a hard-to-accept reality: watching their savings in the account slowly lose value, or spending them as quickly as possible on consumption. The option to take money “into the drawer” and protect it from such a measure would disappear.
In this sense, cash represents insurance – not only against technical failures or system collapse but also against interventions that would directly limit the economic freedom of the individual. It is the only form of money that is not dependent on the decision of another institution – it remains in the hands of the citizen and provides the possibility to choose how and when to use one’s resources.
Hard Data Speak Clearly
According to the European Central Bank, cash continues to be the dominant means of payment in retail, and its importance persists despite the dynamic growth of digital payments. Statistics from the Czech National Bank also show that the amount of cash in circulation in the Czech Republic has been continuously increasing since 2003, confirming the public’s lasting demand for cash.
Cash as a Guarantee of Choice
Cashless payments are undoubtedly one of the great advantages of modern times, and their benefits are not disputed by anyone. However, precisely because cash exists alongside them, we can use digital payments fully and without fear. Cash represents insurance in crises, protects privacy, and, last but not least, ensures one of the most valuable values – freedom of choice.
Source: Fábik M. (2024). Study of the Optimization of Cash Services.